Harry Potter and the Elemental Nations
by Clow Angel
Summary: A summoning gone awry pulls Harry from his ancestral home into the middle of a battle between the Sannin atop giant talking animals. More than a little confused but soldiering on despite the strange place he now calls reality, Harry goes on to baffle the Elemental Nations with his acts of magic. [Slash]
1. Prologue

_**Disclaimer: I do not and never will own Harry Potter or Naruto.**_

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 **Harry Potter and the Elemental Nations**

Chapter One

The war had taken its toll on Wizarding Britain. People looked over their shoulders constantly, never knowing when a stray death eater would strike and families were grieving. It took years for the wizarding world to get back on its feet. Laws were passed and abolished, Hogwarts was standing bright and tall and in one piece again, new officials were instated and shady ones kicked out of office, shops were reopened, and eventually it felt like war hadn't torn through the streets and demolished people and buildings alike. The young Potter heir helped with the rebuilding of Hogwarts and the patrolling of the streets when it became clear the DMLE were hit hard by loss. He had even called the rest of the DA to temporarily fill the ranks. Several members officially passed the rigorous test and joined the ranks hoping to help the workload that suddenly fell on the undermanned department. With that temporarily taken care of, he happily left security measures to the DA and worked on bettering relations with Britain's neighbors when the new minister and Order member, Kingsley Shacklebolt, had asked for his help in mending relations between magical communities.

Even before the war, relations between countries were shaky but being the Savior and friends with fellow Tri-Wizard competitor Fleur Delacour, daughter of a French politician, had helped pave his way towards communication. With how much he'd been shuffled to one meeting after another, he had quickly mastered the translation charm. He never wanted to repeat the one disastrous meeting when his miscast charm had him calling a diplomat a "pig snout". After over two years of being Britain's unofficial ambassador, Harry was starting to tire. He was tired of scrutinizing everyone and everything, of checking his food and beverages for poison, of ducking hexes and unforgivables, and especially of the assassination attempts on both himself and his friends and acquaintances. He loved to help, but there was only so far he could stretch himself before fraying at the edges. He needed a break and a place to make a home out of, somewhere far away from the masses and preferably so heavily warded, not even a beetle could get through the cracks.

The young war hero had finally gone to Gringotts under the advisement of Draco Malfoy, someone he'd grown to grudgingly respect after several run-ins in the political circle, when he'd mentioned he was looking for a permanent residence. His once friend, Ron Weasley, when he found out about their truce, had thrown a tantrum of epic proportions and severed all ties with him until he could 'see sense' again. After years of putting up with the redhead's temper, bigotry, and jealousy, Harry couldn't take any more. He'd apologized to Hermione for the position she was put in and never looked back. It culminated in a broken relationship in which his best friend had broken down in his arms, crying tears of heartbreak and screaming between sobs into his chest about the idiocy of redheads.

 _"What did I ever see in him?!"_

 _"Love is blind, Hermione..." was all he could say in the face of her angry tears as he held her tightly against him, wishing it hadn't come to this._

The visit to Gringotts had opened a can of worms he didn't think he was ever prepared for. He had been instated as Lord Potter, gained a seat on the Wizengamot, and several estates as well as shares, along with the wills of his parents, godfather, and Remus. His family's goblin account manager had been less than pleased when he realized the young lord knew nothing.

 _"Your magical guardian was responsible for your education!"_

 _"Magical guardian?" He wasn't aware he had one of those._

 _"Albus Dumbledore, as your magical guardian, was supposed to be your educator."_

His world fell apart that day. His headmaster had intentionally neglected his duties because he had set Harry on the path to death. The old man hadn't even entertained the notion of Harry's survival. In the end, the Potter goblin, Braggrot, had thrown a heavy tome at him with a pointed glare. After a week of having knowledge he should have already possessed pounded into his brain by a grouchy goblin, he finally learned enough to pretend he knew. Once his accounts were settled, he chose his heavily warded ancestral manor as his home, having grown paranoid over the past few years. Being on the run had definitely left its mark.

Years later, Harry James Potter could finally say he was relatively content with his life. He'd made himself a home and was no longer in serious danger of being assassinated while out in public. He was happy with and proud of the calm that had settled over Wizarding Britain even though he missed the adventure at times. It was strangely unsettling how peaceful life had become. Somehow, the Wizarding World had turned him into an adrenaline junkie. When he wasn't at home, he was traveling to other magical communities and he occasionally joined Bill Weasley in his quest for knowledge and treasure as a curse breaker. Other times, he would visit the Romanian dragon reserve with Charlie Weasley and see Norberta and the other dragons. Even when home, he would practice new magics and work on little projects with Hermione who had been recruited by the Department of Mysteries an Unspeakable after finishing her schooling.

It was during one of Harry's days of relaxation when adventure would come find him again. The savior of the wizarding world was conversing with a summoned serpent in the underground chambers of his ancestral home when wind whipped through the once still room, tossing parchment into the air that was just as suddenly charged with static. Motes of magic materialized and there was a sudden influx of pressure. Bright light filled his vision as a runic circle appeared beneath him and his companion. Panicking, Harry expelled a force of magic and shoved his companion to the far wall, as far away from the circle as he could. Before he was whisked away, he could only make out that the runes were Japanese in origin.

A startled hiss of §§ _ **Little King!**_ §§ was the last Harry heard before white light blinded him.

If he wasn't so accustomed to the strange ways of magical travel, Harry would have fallen flat on his face. As it was, he managed to land on his feet with only a stumble. Blinking owlishly, he stared at his surroundings in barely concealed shock. All he could see was grass and more grass...and then giant animals. No one could blame him when he gaped. And then he gaped some more when he realized there were people _standing on the gigantic animals._ What on Earth?! Hell, was he still on Earth?!

And then he was being shouted at in Japanese even though he was fairly certain he wasn't in Japan. He'd been there a fair few times and he'd never come across such people. In fact, it took him a few seconds before that little fact connected with his overwhelmed brain. It was only the amount of diplomatic travels he had to endure as 'The Savior' that he'd even learned to identify different languages. Wandlessly and silently casting a translation charm on himself, Harry cleared his throat and asked, "Sorry. Would you mind repeating that?"

A serpentine man hiss threateningly at him, "Who are you _boy?_ I summoned the King of Serpents, so where did you come from?"

Harry narrowed his eyes at the man who, despite looking nothing like Voldemort, reminded him of the Dark Lord with his raspy voice and reptilian eyes. Let's not forget the sibilant hiss to his words.

Harry _was_ the 'King' of Serpents however it was unlikely the man meant to summon him. The wizard rightfully assumed his, no doubt very frustrated, companion back in the underground chambers of his ancestral home was the intended target for this summon. Without knowing it, by being a parselmouth and killing the previous Empress of Serpents in his second year, he had gained the title "Conqueror-of-the-Ancient-One" and became known as Emperor of Serpents. Upon learning of his title, he had been reluctant to acknowledge it, but in the end acceptance came quickly when he realized the stigma snakes held due to the terror Voldemort had brought to the wizarding world. He worked quickly to rectify it. Though he had hated using his name, he had learned that sometimes that was how things could get done the quickest, and now Harry had a second familiar in the form of a young basilisk. His little snake was actually gaining a bit of a fan base after rescuing a young girl from a kidnapper. Still, he didn't think his title transferred to other lands or worlds or wherever he currently was.

"So you did," Harry eventually replied, "though I think you were expecting an entirely different king." Manda did make an impressive looking serpent king and was a very regal specimen of his species.

This drew only more confusion. Seeing as he wasn't helping whatever the situation might be, Harry shrugged and simply said, "I guess I'll go explore and leave you to whatever you were doing."

"You can't just leave!" someone shouted from atop one of the giant animals, a toad smoking a pipe of all things.

Squinting, the wizard could make out what seemed to be a middle aged white-haired man with tribal tattoos on his face.

"And why not?" Harry shouted back in reply, trying his hardest to sound disbelieving. "I don't know you, I got summoned by a weirdo, and what do you expect me to do in this whatever you're doing? Why would I join a party with giant animals when I'm clearly human?"

The giant toad who had remained silently observing until now spluttered indignantly and boomed, " _ **party?!**_ "

Harry didn't bother wondering about how a toad could talk. Magic was probably the answer or something anyway. "Hello? Outsider here. I don't know what you were doing, remember? So bye!"

The long-haired Voldemort lookalike actually tried to take his head off-the bastard-with a long

sword the weirdo held in his mouth of all places, before the wizard vanished with a deafening crack.

It wasn't long after Harry left the strangers behind that he heard the sounds of battle. The madman actually managed to nick his cheek with the edge. The wound burned painfully for a moment, the phoenix tears in his blood burned beneath his skin as it purged the poison from his blood. The nick vanished with a sizzle, leaving the black poison behind to dry. After a bit of pondering, Harry decided to stick around a bit. Taking out his shrunken Firebolt, he unshrunk it before mounting it and taking off into the air to observe these strange people from above. In his haste to leave, he hadn't noticed there was an unconscious kid laying there with only a young woman to watch over him. 'Well, shite.' Now he couldn't leave thanks to his saving-people thing as Hermione would put it.

When Manda was finally successfully summoned, Harry frowned. The giant snake looked around in what he would describe as pure outrage before narrowing his reptilian eyes at the top of his head where two men stood.

" _ **Orochimaru!**_ " Oh, so that's the weirdo's name. The serpent didn't sound friendly in the least. Strange considering upon first meeting, Harry had thought the snake had a funny morbid sense of humor as was customary for them and was rather respectful despite being a proud, sarcastic, and witty creature. Snakes weren't known for rolling over so being snarked at and threatened was fairly tame. However, Manda was almost spitting venom at the moment.

Wait, Manda just spoke in Japanese! Harry almost gaped. He didn't even think to speak to Manda in a human language. Maybe magical snakes were capable of learning human languages. He had never heard of it before but then again, there were still many things he was clueless about of the magical world. Or maybe only giant animals in this world were capable of human speech. More shouting drew him back to the situation below.

" _ **What did you do to him, you ant?!**_ " The snake had likely caught a faint whiff of Harry's blood with a flick of his forked tongue and upon finding the wizard missing, jumped to conclusions of the morbidly lethal variety. Granted, the Orochi fellow did try to behead him.

Before the man could answer, Manda had dislodged him from his head and attempted to flatten him and his manservant with his tail, leaving a curved trench in the earth. The other two animals and their human companions could only watch in confusion as the snake summon tried to make summoner pancake.

" _ **Answer me!**_ "

Harry smiled despite himself. It was nice to be so cared about by the serpent. After growing up without affection or love, he found himself appreciating all the affection and adoration he received from his friends, familiars and the serpents. Even as a grown man, he still adored hugs.

The serpentine man seemed to realize that admitting to attacking the boy he accidentally summoned would lead to an early grave and was obviously looking for a way to sidestep the question by offering the serpent sacrifices in exchange for his help. Manda was having none of it and continued his attacks while demanding answers. The blonde woman had obviously reached the same conclusion and more than happily gave the snake the answer.

"Manda!" She shouted from atop her perch. "Orochimaru tried to take his head off with Kusanagi. The kid-

He would very much like them to stop calling him a kid, thanks. He was twenty-three, for Merlin's sake.

"-disappeared after getting scratched. You should find him if he's so important. The poison on the sword kills fairly quickly." She would know. The victims of that sword never lasted more than a few hour before perishing in agony. Wherever the kid was, he must be in great pain as the poison ran its course. It wasn't something an innocent bystander deserved. If he hadn't disappeared, she would have done her best to purge the poison from him.

Manda reared back to get a better look at the woman, momentarily halting his attacks, trying to discern if she was lying or not. Casting a disgusted glance at the sweating Orochimaru, he looked to the toad for verification.

Gamabunta heaved a sigh before grudgingly answering the snake. " _ **Tsunade-hime's right. Snakeface attacked the boy after he tried to leave. Got scratched with Kusanagi before he disappeared.**_ "

Apparently that was more than enough for the snake to fully turn on his summoner. It was then Manda noticed the weakened state the man was in. " _ **You dare to summon me in your pathetic state, Orochimaru?**_ **Furthermore** _ **, you dare to attack and poison my Emperor?! I will take great pleasure in feasting upon your corpse, you rat!**_ "

Seeing the very real danger they were in, Kabuto made a quick getaway with a shunshin, taking his ill master along with him. The snake could only glare hatefully at the now empty spot.

Jiraiya and Tsunade exchanged baffled glances at the strange statement.

" _ **My Lord, I know you're around here somewhere**_ ," the snake boomed, carefully watching his surroundings for any sign of the wizard.

Giving in, Harry landed on the snake's large head after carefully stowing his broom away midair. "I'm here. Thanks for worrying about me." He patted the snake between the eyes in thanks.

" _ **What were you thinking, jumping into a summon circle like that?! There was no need to push me aside. I could handle anything that disgusting human attempts upon my being,**_ " Manda boasted in his usual arrogant way before flicking his tongue in displeasure upon seeing the blood on the human's cheek. " _ **That rat actually cut you with Kusanagi!**_ "

Harry could only rub the nape of his neck sheepishly. What could he say? He was a Gryffindor. "Sorry?" Seeing the serpent's gaze fixated on his cheek, he quickly wiped the blood away with his sleeve. "See? All healed and taken care of!"

Manda only huffed at the wizard before turning on his tail, careful not to dislodge the wizard, to glare at the other two duos as if daring them to try anything. " _ **I will eat you if you dare try to harm him. You know you cannot hope to defeat me even if there are four of you rats scurrying about.**_ "

Gamabunta scowled as well as a toad could before retaliating in the most irritating manner he could by blowing smoke in the snake's face.

Katsuyu evidently chose to be peace keeper. " _ **Do not worry, Manda-sama. We have no issue with the young man. He came upon the scene purely by accident. We will do him no harm so long as he does us no harm.**_ "

The large serpent remained skeptical but huffed in acceptance anyway. All the serpents by now knew their Emperor had a bleeding heart and wasn't the confrontational sort. Not to say that the human couldn't fight-he did kill their previous Empress as a child after all-, but he was too kind and was prone to falling headfirst into trouble. If Harry wasn't so ridiculously powerful and wasn't afraid to retaliate when provoked, many would have taken advantage of the perceived weakness and tried to take his title. As it was, his easygoing nature only endeared the human to the serpent race.

§§ _I will be fine_ _on my own, Manda._ §§

Manda carefully lowered his head to the ground to allow the wizard to hop off before rising again and staring down at Harry sternly. §§ _Call me if you are in trouble, understood? Emperor of Serpents or not, you are only a puny human._ §§

Said Emperor rolled his eyes but nodded to appease Manda anyway. §§ _Of course._ §§

Casting one final warning glare at the other two summoners and summon animals, Manda turned to Harry and bowed his head before disappearing with a puff of smoke.

Jiraiya and Tsunade exchanged another glance of many that day before dismissing their partners. Landing lightly on the ground, they approached the obviously foreign man.

Tsunade, ever the healer, looked at the man's cheek with a critical eye, frowning when there was no wound to be seen, only a bit of crusty dried blood remained. "You healed yourself?"

Harry nodded and smiled hesitantly when she looked unconvinced. In fact, her expression reminded him very much of Madam Pomfrey.

The woman narrowed her eyes and eyed his cheek for a moment before grudgingly letting the issue slide. Unfortunately, that only gave her an opening for questioning. "How—no, who are you?"

"Oh, right. I'm Harry. Nice to meet you…?"

Jiraiya snorted, chuckling despite the situation. The man seemed way too bashful to be any kind of Emperor of Snakes or whatever.

"Um, I have a question. Where exactly am I?"

"…"

 _End of Prologue._

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Edited: July 22, 2016


	2. Chapter 01

This chapter is shorter than I would have liked, but this is how it wrote itself out. Despite how short it is, it still took me _**hours**_ to write this thing! I edited, re-edited it, and then changed things about half a dozen times. I also spent quite a lot of time researching Naruto's world for I couldn't remember everything off the top of my head. The Elemental Nations' map was used as a reference quite a lot too. I hope you appreciate the amount of work I did as I've never done so much before.

The title is still a work in progress. I can't think of something that doesn't suck. Feel free to give me suggestions!

 _ **One Final Warning**_ : I am absolutely horrible at keeping an update schedule so if anyone expects regular updates, you're in for a lot of disappointment. I write when I feel inspired to.

 **Reply to Guest review:**

 **susi-san:** Thank you for taking the time to Google translate your questions! I'm afraid I can't answer most of them because it might spoil the story a bit. But one thing I can answer is that Teddy will not be in this story. And what did you mean by "How long will?" I wish I knew Spanish but I don't, and google Translate doesn't work that well.

 **Harry Potter and the Elemental Nations**

Chapter Two

As the mismatched group silently made their way to the Inn, Harry took the opportunity to observe the dimension he found himself in. The first thing he noticed was the people dressed strangely. The few people he walked past wore a mixture of classic Japanese and fairly modern muggle clothing. The people he were with dressed even more strangely, and this was coming from a wizard who spent most of his time in a world that was stuck in the medieval times.

The wizard really didn't want to speak up first, but he couldn't contain himself any longer. "What do you people do?" he asked somewhat cautiously.

The older man eyed him— _him—_ strangely. "We're shinobi."

Half a second later, the translation spell worked through his mind and supplied the word 'ninja'. Unable to think of anything to say, all Harry could manage was a blank, "I see."

Weren't ninja supposed to be masters of stealth and all that? How was a man with stark white hair down to his buttocks dressed in red supposed to hide? The unconscious boy was even worse, dressed in neon orange. Only the dark-haired woman wore more subdued clothing fitting what he imagined a ninja would wear but even she was wearing heels with open toes.

The actual world was weird too. Case in point, he was walking on a dirt path instead of a paved road. It wasn't even cobblestone like the wizarding world. There didn't exist a road sign in any direction he looked. He was honestly unsure what to make of what he was seeing. He was almost tempted to summon Manda and ask, but he felt that would direct more questions at him instead.

After nearly an hour of walking in which Harry observed some more, they arrived at a city called Tanzaku Gai and quickly made their way to the Sakura no Mai Inn, a middle-class resort outfitted with traditional Japanese style rooms and decor. Like the name implied, everything was decorated with an understated sakura motif. Only after sealing the door shut did they all relax. The unconscious boy was quickly set down on one of the two double beds and checked on before they all silently agreed to sit down for a much awaited conversation.

Pouring himself some tea at the table they were all sitting around, the wizard patiently waited for the questions to start.

Unsurprisingly, it was the man who cleared his throat abruptly and fired off the first question. "So what's your full name, Hari?"

"Harry Potter. Potteru Hari is what you would call me in your language, I suppose," he answered, shrugging minutely. "Yours?"

After a round of introductions, they finally got down to the actual topic and the only answer he could give was a stripped version of the truth. There was no way he was going to put himself at more of a disadvantage than he already was by revealing anything important.

"I was talking with Manda when the summoning happened. I've never actually witnessed a summoning from the other side, and so I panicked and shoved Manda out of the way," he explained, deliberately leaving out the fact that he wasn't a native of their world. Seeing their disbelieving expressions, he muttered petulantly, "I thought we were under attack."

Tsunade snorted in amusement. "That explains a lot though I've never seen Manda treat anyone so kindly. He called you his Emperor. Why is that?"

Harry stared blankly at her and in an almost incredulous voice, he said, "You don't honestly expect me to tell you, do you? I don't intend to tell you anything you don't already know, and I can't tell you about how the Serpents run their kingdom." Granted, he had known nothing either until he had graduated from Hogwarts, and he was still learning.

"Last I checked, the serpents had a queen though she had gone traveling the realms," Jiraiya said, raising a brow in challenge.

 _Traveling?_ Was that what all the serpents had been telling everyone who asked after the basilisk? In truth, the basilisk had gone insane after being in forced isolation for so long. It was a pity such a beautiful creature was reduced to what she had become. As long as she was alive, she kept the title of queen despite the fact that her mind was long gone. The clan couldn't contact her either so they had no idea anything was wrong other than the fact that she had disappeared one day. Only when she was killed did they know the title had changed hands as her life force disappeared, alerting the elders.

"And when did you last check?" Harry returned blandly.

Here, the man laughed nervously. "Over ten years ago?" There was very little point in knowing the going-ons of the summoning realm. Humans weren't typically allowed too much information on their politics, and each animal kingdom had their own laws and customs so it was a pain in the ass to keep up with anyway.

Before the conversation could go any further, a pained groan from the orange-clad boy diverted their attention. The ninja immediately arranged themselves around the child, generally fussing over him. Harry remained where he was, observing.

It wasn't long before the newly awakened boy noticed the newcomer and blinked in surprise. "Who're you?"

Smiling kindly at the boy, he answered, "you may call me Hari."

"Oh, uh nice ta meetcha Hari! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage! Soooo, um..."

He had no idea what a Hokage was but the kid was kind of cute in the puppy-ish kind of way. "Don't worry about who I am. I won't be here much longer. Glad to see you're alright though."

Here, the rest of the shinobi started, looking at the wizard in surprise. "You're not coming back with us to Konoha?"

Harry suddenly felt very lost in translation. Was there any mention made of him going anywhere with them? He didn't think so. And where was Konoha anyway? His confusion must have shown because Shizune chose to speak up and explain.

"I didn't mean to presume but since you were pretty much dumped into the middle of nowhere, we thought you would want some company and a place to find your footing before finding your way back home."

"Oh," he replied slowly before finally gathering his thoughts. "Thank you for the offer, but I would like to explore instead. I'll be fine on my own."

Jiraiya and Tsunade exchanged glances. They didn't want to leave Potteru alone and defenseless in a place he knew nothing about, but the man was none of their business either, and they had no reason for bringing him to Konoha. The problem was the man was a civilian from what they could tell. He walked like a civilian, his hands were callous-free, and there were no weapons hidden on him whatsoever. Other than looking very obviously foreign with his exotic features—the man's eyes were the brightest of greens, capable of putting emeralds to shame, with a nest of untamable raven-black hair, and no one looked like that in these parts—and dressed in strange clothing, there was nothing overly strange about the man.

Shizune looked conflicted and worried, and although Harry appreciated her concern and kindness, he could take care of himself. "Don't worry about me Shizune-san. I can take care of myself."

"But Hari, do you know how to fight? There are bad shinobi and bandits and stuff!" Naruto protested loudly.

Great. There were rogue ninja and bandits now? "Well, no. I don't know any martial arts." But he did know magic. He shrugged nonchalantly. "I can always summon Manda if I find myself in trouble."

It seemed everyone forgot he could summon snakes judging by their surprised expressions. Naruto's eyes were wider than saucers. "You have a summoning contract with that Orochimaru bastard's snake?!"

Harry only smiled secretively, not confirming or denying it. "Manda will be more than sufficient to deal with your everyday bandits."

Jiraiya nearly choked on his spit. "That's overkill! You can't just summon him for something like that!"

Harry tilted his head in consideration. Well, Manda _was_ pretty big. "Oh. Then I'll just summon the smaller snakes. Problem solved."

Shizune sighed. "I see there's no convincing you. Well, be careful. Come visit Konoha sometime to let us know you're still alive or send a letter."

The next morning, Harry parted ways with the eccentric group of ninjas after a promise of sending them a letter, once he figured out how the mail service worked that is. The kind Shizune handed him a package she claimed were things he'd need on the road, which he thanked her for. Naruto even hugged him tightly before bouncing off with the others. The boy certainly grew attached to people quickly.

A week later, the wizard found himself still in Tanzaku Gai, having made quite a bit of cash in the casinos. With a bit of magic, he was able to win a few hands here and there and under different glamours. With more than enough money and then some to finally hit the road, the green-eyed man summoned a snake for some company, spun his wand in his hand, and walked in the direction his wand pointed to.

The first thing he came to know was he was in Fire Country, and Fire Country had a lot of trees despite the name. With a name like Fire Country, he'd expected a lot more heat and perhaps sand or maybe even volcanoes. Instead, Harry felt it should've been named Tree Country with how many he'd seen. He enjoyed every moment of it though as he strayed off the path and headed into the forests and learning the terrain. He did always enjoy the outdoors more than being indoors. Having a childhood of living in a boot cupboard made him appreciate wide open spaces and endless skies. Conversing with the local snakes, he learned more about the shinobi and their large scale battles and how dangerous such people were. The large imposing trees also reminded him of home, of the Forbidden Forest where trees crowded out the sky, darkening the grounds and bathing the undergrowth in darkness for the acromantula to roam hidden in plain sight and unicorn foals to hide in the foliage in relative safety, of the roots that twisted in strange and terrifying but beautiful patterns across the forest floor, and the bowtruckle that called the trees their home and snagged onto your clothing as you passed.

Thinking of the forest made his mind wander to his familiars back in his ancestral manor. He wondered if they were frantic with worry. Separated by a whole dimension, he could oddly enough still feel the pull of the familiar bonds, but they were muted distant echoes compared to the comforting hum of before. He could no longer feel impressions of their emotions at the back of his mind nor their wild magics in his core, beneath his skin. Their magic was still present but it was barely a trickle to signify they were alive and well. Sighing, he stared up at the sky, watching forlornly as a hawk circled the skies and thought of Hedwig, Artemis and Fawkes.

When he made his way to civilization after days of being out in the wilderness, the people were mostly friendly and helpful so he'd learned a lot by just watching and listening, and occasionally helping old grannies with their groceries while they prattled on about anything and everything. Once they realized he was a civilian, they were much more open. To blend in, he'd transfigured his clothes into muggle clothing that the people seemed familiar with. Dressed in jeans and a dark t-shirt, he looked a little less conspicuous despite his exotic features. Apparently Fire Country had a lot of tourists come in from other countries so although he looked different, it didn't stand out as much as if he would visit other countries as Fire Country had a pretty open door policy when it came to visitors.

Although he liked the atmosphere of Fire Country settlements, he never stayed in one place for more than three days, eager to see as much of the new world as he could. The trees soon thinned out a bit and traveling became a bit more difficult with the amount of hills, valleys and caves in which he found was River Country, not to mention the river. Once he'd made his way across River Country, exploring the villages and learning about how different River Country's customs and people were from Fire Country's as he went, which wasn't actually that dissimilar due to the short distance, the terrain once again changed on him.

This time, he was surrounded by heat, sand, sand, and more sand! Why it wasn't called Sand Country, he didn't know. Hell, Fire Country would have been more fitting, it was so bloody hot! He wondered how people lived comfortably in such an unforgiving environment without cooling charms. As luck would have it, a sandstorm had developed out of nowhere forcing him to take cover in a cave.

Hours later, he stumbled onto a small village and found out he was in Wind Country and getting that tiny bit of information was like pulling teeth. The middle-aged man eyed him like he expected the wizard to mug him. The natives in this country were wary and distrusting of strangers, even civilian strangers. Shop keepers would sell to him, expressions blank, but most looked at him suspiciously. Strangers were rare in this country as not many people wanted to brave the sandstorms and heat unless there was a festival of some kind. Only then were strangers welcomed as tourists meant money. Not two days into Wind Country, he'd apparated back to the border between River and Fire Country, thankful to escape the heat and sand. If he didn't see sand again for a year or ten, he'd be happy. Going through River Country again, he explored the parts he hadn't before, once more conversing with the snakes he came across.

After nearly a month of traveling, Harry figured it couldn't hurt to stay still for a while and rest. Renting a cabin was easy, and it made learning about the area and its people less difficult. Unfortunately, it also attracted strays in the form of an unconscious shinobi on his cabin floor.

 _To be continued..._

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Edited: July 22, 2016


	3. Chapter 02

**AN:** Holy shit, guys and girls! You are all amazing. I just realized this story is on 397 favorites lists and is being followed by 597 people, and it's only two chapters long so far. Thanks everyone. Because of all the favorites, follows, and reviews, I've gained some inspiration.

 **EDIT: Fixing LINE BREAKS! Stupid FFN.**

 **Harry Potter and the Elemental Nations**  
Chapter Two

Sometimes Harry wonders how he gets into these situations. He had come back to his rented cabin from a day of exploring the nearby River Country village and buying some necessities only to find an unconscious stranger on his floor. And if he was correct, the said stranger also happened to be a shinobi judging by his headband. Once again from Konoha too, though the slash through the symbol was slightly different. Wonderful. However he couldn't just toss the man out for his saving-people-thing, as Hermione put it, kicked in once again. Sighing, the wizard threw an _immobulus_ on the stranger as a precaution in case he woke from being moved. Casting a _m_ _obilicorpus_ _on_ him too, Harry moved the man into the bedroom. Laying him gently on the bed, he spelled the blanket over the man before setting an alarm on the man for when the man woke up. Removing the _immobulus_ , he studied the man he'd taken in.

Long, dark hair the color of a raven's wings was pulled back into a low ponytail, stress lines decorated the man's under-eyes. The man must be exceptionally tired for there were smudges of darkness beneath his eyes too. The stranger looked young too, just a teenager from the looks of it though the stress lines made him look years older. Sighing, he stood up straight and headed to the kitchen. Might as well make some food for when the man woke up. Unfortunately for the food, it wasn't until the next day that his stray woke up and at the ass crack of dawn at that.

Harry jerked into a sitting position when the alarm vibrated through his body, shocking him into the waking world. Stumbling to his feet and nearly stubbing his toe at the end of the couch he had been sleeping on, he made his way to the bedroom. As he was about to knock on the door, he paused and threw a shield over himself just in case the shinobi attacked. They were such jumpy people after all. Knocking twice, he pushed the door open to see the stranger already sitting up and eyeing him warily with red eyes before they faded into black. Must be a ninja thing.

"I see you're finally awake. You really shouldn't barge into people's homes and pass out on their floors."

(this is a line break)

Returning to the waking world was a familiar but painful sensation. His chest ached something fierce and his throat was raw from the fit he'd had before falling into blissful oblivion. The last thing he remembered was landing awkwardly on the tatami floor of the empty cabin he used to use as a stopover between missions so the soft bedding beneath him had him instantly on alert. He didn't have much time to think of the situation anymore before there were two knocks on the door. He only made it into a sitting position, sharingan activating briefly to access the stranger for threats, before the door was pushed open gently and a man was standing in the doorway.

"I see you're finally awake. You really shouldn't barge into people's homes and pass out on their floors."

If Itachi was more prone to expressing himself, he would have done more than stare at his host, but as it was, he could only stare blankly at the sleepy man in hidden confusion. Civilians were typically more cautious around shinobi, and this man was clearly a civilian judging by footfalls alone. Although how he knew the exact moment he'd woken up was strange as normal civilians weren't capable of that. The man also didn't seem to recognize him when even most civilians knew who he was and stayed out of his way. His Akatsuki cloak was a clear warning indicator as well, but that didn't seem to deter the man if Itachi was in his bed.

"Not much of a talker, are you? Anyway, gimme a moment to heat up some food for you. You look like you're about to keel over from a strong wind."

The Uchiha would have felt more offended if he didn't feel like he had gone ten rounds with Kakuzu and lost each and every single one. His lungs burned something fierce, and he felt a coughing fit coming on. Giving in to the need, he was forced to hunch over as the coughs racked his thin frame, blood dribbling onto the floor from between his fingers as he held his hand to his mouth to prevent blood from spraying the room. He vaguely heard the man curse before rushing over to him in a panic and attempting to soothe him by arranging his shaking frame into a more comfortable position on the bed and rubbing his back. Despite his illness taking a toll on him, he was aware enough to know this was unusual. Most civilians weren't so accommodating towards rogue shinobi.

When the coughing fit finally abated, he breathed in lungfuls of air in relief, eyes shuttering from exhaustion. The strong hand on his back also helped to soothe him somehow. No one had done that for him since his mother's death at his hands. Frowning briefly at the memories, he finally opened his eyes fully to study the man who had decided to take care of a missing nin. The man had run off sometime in his coughing fit to retrieve a towel apparently and was now gently wiping his blood away. He was met with a face that spoke of a noble heritage for features that striking weren't typical for most people, and his features were striking up close; his nose was straight, cheekbones high, eyes a beautiful emerald that put the leaves in Konoha to shame (and he thought the trees in Fire Country were some of the most beautiful), lips not too thin and not too full, skin naturally pale, and a mess of black-as-night hair. Distracted as he was and feeling strangely lethargic, he barely noticed when the blood was finally all cleaned away and he was tucked beneath the blankets again. He did blink into semi-awareness when the stranger spoke again, a soft lilt of an unknown accent coloring his words.

"Sleep." When the stranger spoke again, it was soft. "I'll wake you up once I've made some soup and food and I'll try to figure out what's wrong with you."

He _was_ feeling tired, and sleep sounded wonderful at the moment. Giving into the desire for rest, Itachi allowed his eyes to fall close.

(this is a line break)

When the man didn't answer and instead seemed to be trying his best to hack up a lung or two, Harry cursed, "holy shit!" and muttered more curses when blood began dripping to the floor. He dropped the thought of food and rushed over to the man, pushing him back onto the bed and rubbed his back as he coughed painfully for nearly a full minute. Running into the bathroom to grab and wet a towel, he hurried back over to his now patient.

He wasn't a certified mediwizard, but he knew enough to cast a diagnostic spell and some healing and bandaging spells. He also had a whole store of potions in his charmed bracelet for emergencies. If there was one thing the war had taught him, it was to always be prepared. Having "Constant Vigilance!" shouted at him by Moody at random intervals definitely helped as well.

The wizard wiped away as much of the blood as he could before running back into the bathroom for another wet towel to clean off the shinobi's hands. "Sleep. I'll wake you up once I've made some soup and food, and I'll try to figure out what's wrong with you."

Harry sighed as his magic influenced his guest into a deep sleep. He once again spelled the covers over the shinobi. Casting a diagnostic spell at the man, he frowned heavily, green eyes dark as he stared at the results on the parchment in front of him. Tuberculosis was the main concern it seemed. There were some other issues, but nothing as problematic. Frowning in concern, he allowed his magic to induce his patient into a healing sleep. It wouldn't heal the damage completely nor rid him of the disease, but it would repair _some_ of it, enough for the shinobi to breathe a bit easier anyway. Sighing, he stood and made his way to the small kitchen to prepare some food for his patient, but not before placing another alarm on the bed.

(this is a line break)

When Itachi next woke up, he almost smiled. He hadn't felt so good in a long time, nor so well-rested. Frowning at the thought, he slowly sat up and studied his surroundings as best as he could with his less than stellar eyesight, noticing the room hadn't changed from the last time he came here. That wasn't normal. No matter how much rest he got, he didn't typically feel energized. Did the green-eyed man give him medication while he was sleeping? And he didn't wake up for it? That wasn't possible.

Once more there was a knock on the door before it opened. Once was a coincidence, but twice? No, the man clearly knew the exact moment he woke up. He was a civilian but apparently one with some shinobi abilities.

"Good, you're awake. I have some food for you." The man held a tray full of easy to consume foods like porridge and soup, and some kind of soft tofu dish. Walking over, he placed the tray on the bed. "I'm looking into a cure for you, but that's not coming along so well."

"Thank you," the Uchiha managed to say blandly, inwardly bewildered. Cure? There was no cure as far as he knew. How did the man even know what kind of disease he had? He discretely checked the food for poison before taking a bite of the porridge. He would have wolfed it all down if he wasn't so well-mannered for it was that good. The food was delicious on a level he'd never had before, and it was just common fare. In fact, he was sure this was on par with what most of Konoha would consider the epitome of culinary arts: the Akimichi clan's cooking.

Only after finishing his food did Itachi notice his host watching him with amusement. He shoved down the discomfort he felt, and thanked his host again.

"Thank you," he intoned monotonously.

The man seemed to huff in amusement before taking the tray. "You shinobi sure are strange, but I suppose that's normal?" Shaking his head, he continued, "you should sleep some more...after a bath maybe." His nose wrinkled as he motioned to the Uchiha's clothing.

Itachi looked down at himself, taking note of the blood on his clothing, and nodded reluctantly. He also felt rather grimy after the long trek through the wilderness and sleeping for nearly two days straight. He didn't want to stay any longer than he had to though. Kisame was probably growing annoyed at having to wait for him. His partner knew he liked his solitude when not on missions but there was only so long he could disappear before the Kiri missing nin would come looking for him.

"Thank you for your hospitality, but I must leave soon. I will repay you when I am able. However, it is best that you forget you ever met me." A civilian shouldn't be involved with missing nin; it only brought trouble to them.

"You realize you're dying right? Tuberculosis isn't a joke. Even if you're taking meds, you're only buying time."

Fighting the urge to glare, the Uchiha remained silent and blank-faced. He was prepared for the inevitable. It was nothing a stranger should be concerned about anyhow.

"Well, I can see you already knew that. And you're a stubborn one too. Well, you're not going anywhere for three days at least. That should give me time to find something."

This time, Itachi couldn't help an incredulous blink as a brow seemed to arch of its own accord. "As a civilian, what can you do to keep me here? If I were so inclined, you would be dead." It was a threat that most people couldn't ignore—except apparently this person for his host only grinned at him.

"You'll find that you can't leave this cabin for the next three days."

What? Immediately getting up, he rushed at the man intent on knocking him out only to find himself at the other side of the room. He'd been bounced off an invisible barrier and only managed to land on his feet due to his training. What? That—what? Surveying the man and the room they were in, he found nothing out of the ordinary. Were there seals? Sharingan flaring to life, he stared at the man, weaving a subtle genjutsu but it didn't seem to take effect, his chakra sliding off the man. In fact, Harry only smiled in amusement, having obviously taken notice of it.

The effects of the Sharingan not working, he allowed his eyes to fade to black. "Who are you?"

"I'm Harry Potter—er, I mean, Potteru Hari would be the way you would call me. Whatever. Just call me Hari or if you can pronounce it, Harry."

He'd never heard of the man, and Harry wasn't lying about who he was. There were no tells. Surely someone that was able to trap an S-Class missing nin against his will would be known to the shinobi world?

"Don't be stupid and just take a bath, rest, and let me do some research to find you a cure." With that, Hari left, shutting the door behind with a click.

Never had Itachi felt as vulnerable and confused, and that was counting the night he'd helped massacre his entire clan. Opening the window, he cautiously extended a hand outside and was met with an invisible barrier. Pushing at the barrier with some chakra, he was instantly repelled with an audible snap. Somehow, Hari had sealed him in the cottage. It wasn't strange for some civilian clans to be knowledgeable on fuinjutsu but not to this extent for their chakra capacities didn't allow them to fuel large scale fuinjutsu. Was Hari a civilian borne from a shinobi clan? But he bore no features that suggested as such. His features were entirely foreign. In fact, he'd never seen someone with such exotic attributes nor could he place the accent that bled into his Japanese.

Frustration mounting, he frowned and his Sharingan activated without thought. Summoning one of his crows, Itachi tossed it at the window and sighed in defeat when the crow dispersed harmlessly against the barrier it hit. A shunshin had him repelled the same way. In fact, he'd ended up in a heap by the door. The stronger he pushed against the barrier, the stronger it reacted. His Sharingan couldn't make heads or tails of what he was seeing either. All he could see were wisps of color and strange patterns with his doujutsu enhanced sight of what he assumed was the barrier but he couldn't understand it. Perhaps a bath would clear his mind.

(this is a line break)

 **AN:** I'm...not sure how or why Itachi got trapped in a cabin when I had planned for their "talk" to be a bit more...peaceful, but Itachi decided to misbehave and he's now in time out. This happens to most writers right? You know, characters deciding to do what they wanted instead of what you had planned for them? Hell, the original plan was for Itachi to just wake up and be on his way!


	4. Chapter 03

**Author's Notes:** Sorry for the long wait everyone. I was sick for a week and a half, and then Final Fantasy XIV distracted me. If any of you play on Diabolos and want a somewhat newbie friend who just hit level 50, add me! My character's name is "Eclipse Lleuad".

 **Harry Potter and the Elemental Nations**

Chapter Three

Harry was ready to rip his hair out. It had been a day and a half, and he'd gotten nowhere. To start with, he was only ever trained in emergency battlefield healing spells such as wrapping wounds, stopping bleeding, and making splints. He also carried a ton of bezoar on him thanks to the assassination attempts upon himself and his friends after Voldemort's fall. Not everyone had phoenix tears in their blood after all. None of that would be useful in curing his unwilling guest. Even after hours of reading through what little medical books he had on him in his trunk—you never know what kind of situation one could end up in if you were named Harry James Potter after all—he had found nothing he himself could use. His magic was freely malleable, but he had no intricate knowledge of the human anatomy, therefore no way of directing his magic correctly. For all he knew, him directing his magic to get rid of the tuberculosis could end up with a lung-less ninja, as that would technically get rid of the disease. Gripping his hair in frustration, he banged his head against the dining table twice for good measure. It helped ease the headache forming between his brow at least.

"Ugh, where is Fawkes when you need him?"

A flash of fire lit the room and Fawkes the phoenix stood on the cluttered table staring expectantly at his human, looking a little ruffled. Despite how tired he was from dimensional hopping, he still trilled happily upon seeing the wizard.

The wizard gaped in shock for several seconds before he came to his senses and shot up, knocking his chair to the floor. "Fawkes!" He swept the large bird into his arms and enjoyed the fire bird's warmth, very near tears. He had missed his little animal family.

After a moment, Harry looked down at the phoenix rubbing his crested head against his chest. "Wait a second, I only had to call you?" He received a nod. A moment of stunned silence later, Harry asked in astonishment, "phoenixes can flash through dimensions?"

Fawkes nodded once more before resuming cuddling with his wizard. _"We're capable of crossing from one world into another though it requires much energy. It is good that I am an ancient creature for a fledgling would not have the energy required to reach you without making stops. I have missed you, my little wizard."_

"I've missed you too," he whispered softly. "How are the others doing?"

A sad note filled the air, leaving behind a sense of loneliness. _"Hedwig is most distraught. She tried searching for you, but was unable to grasp a hold of our link. Artemis is worried."_

"Is it possible for you to flash them here once you've recovered? I can tell it tired you out. Your feathers are never ruffled."

The phoenix nodded twice, eager to have everyone together again.

Smiling, Harry hugged the bird tighter against himself, careful to not crush the bird. "Oh, that's right. Do you think you could heal tuberculosis? A guest of mine is pretty bad off according to the diagnosis. His eyes are also failing him, but I have the potion to correct eyesight on me. He might not like having his eyeballs melted and regrown though."

Fawkes tilted his head in consideration. He'd only ever healed open wounds or poisons, but his tears were technically the most potent cure for just about any illness, capable of rescuing someone from Death's doors. He shrugged as best as he could, wrapped in Harry's arms as he was.

"Well, it's worth a try. Should we dilute your tears? He's a muggle, and I don't think muggles can handle magical healing very well, and you're the most magical of them all." Harry gently set the bird down on the table. Softly stroking Fawkes on the head, his smile widened when the phoenix gave a short nod. It was worth a try.

"You should rest for tonight. It's actually getting pretty late here." As he spoke, he conjured a beautiful golden perch to suit his beautiful familiar. Only the very best for them. Fawkes fluttered over to the perch, tested it out and settled in to sleep, crimson eyes falling closed almost immediately.

When Itachi woke up on the third day of his 'imprisonment', he frowned in confusion for there was what sounded like music playing, but it was a kind of music he'd never heard before. It was almost bird-like in quality, but no bird he knew of was capable of producing such a beautiful melody. Cautiously opening his door—he was no longer confined to a bedroom after Harry had decided locking someone in a room was terrible manners, and Itachi wouldn't be able to leave the cabin anyway—he headed into the kitchen where the music was coming from and stopped short at the sight of a large majestic crimson bird sitting on a golden perch singing its heart out to the rising sun. The bird, framed by the rays of the rising sun, was a beautiful sight to behold bathed in gold with shimmering feathers that reminded Itachi of dancing flames. He walked closer until he could appreciate the beauty of the animal with clarity.

"He's beautiful isn't he?"

Itachi flinched. He had been so absorbed in the birdsong, he never noticed Harry's approach.

"He's yours?" the shinobi asked, eyes fixed on the singing bird. The animal puffed up, crest rising and falling, and performed a little dance upon noticing his audience, never once faltering in his song. Most nobles would pay a fortune to acquire such a beautiful specimen. Perhaps he wasn't far off when he assumed Harry was of noble heritage.

Harry chuckled, a fond smile forming on his lips. "It's more like I'm his. He chose me."

Itachi was pretty sure that only applied to summoning animals and their contracts. If the animals found a shinobi unsuitable, they were refused and the summoning scroll would not accept their name. If someone was found acceptable, that person would be allowed to summon an animal so long as they had gained the respect of said animal. The toads put their potential summoners through rigorous testing and even after passing would often refuse to listen if you hadn't earned their respect fully. The snakes demanded respect like no other animal he'd ever heard of and if not given, the potential summoners often ended up as snake food. When Orochimaru had been a part of the Akatsuki, Manda had often demanded sacrifices and would only ever help the man if he was addressed as Manda-sama and sometimes not even then.

In the end, Itachi decided it hardly concerned him how the bird came into Harry's possession. He instead took a seat at the dining table and resumed bird watching while Harry puttered around the kitchen making breakfast.

After breakfast was polished off,—Itachi's portion was spiked with a very diluted pepper-up but the ninja didn't need to know that—with Fawkes stealing a strip of bacon from Itachi's plate in the process which prompted a staring war between the two, Harry sat down to discuss the potential cure for the ninja, leaving out certain magical details.

"This will cure me completely?" No one could blame the Uchiha for being skeptical. He'd seen some of the best medics, and all they could do to help was prescribe medication to prolong his life and keep the symptoms at a minimum. Sometimes he wondered if he could live long enough to see his plans for Sasuke and Konoha through.

"Of that, I am unsure. Truth be told, this is an experimental medicine. The one thing I can promise is there will be no harmful side effects."

A flash of black and red out of the corner of his eye had Itachi looking out the window, cutting the conversation short. The sight of Kisame angrily prowling outside had the shinobi on his feet in an instant. He'd been tracked down as he suspected he eventually would be. To his confusion, his partner walked in a large semi-circle before wandering off, not having noticed Itachi staring at him through what was probably the largest window of the cabin just thirty feet away. That was unusual to say the least. Turning, he looked expectantly at Harry for an explanation.

Harry smiled widely at him in return, answering smugly, "I have wards protecting this place from hostile intent." Actually, after Itachi had turned up, he had thrown up anti-muggle wards as well as a notice-me-not alongside wards that did indeed protect from hostile intent. Call him paranoid, but this world he'd ended up in was pretty damn crazy.

Itachi remained silent, unsure how to respond. He was tempted to ask questions like he'd never been tempted to before. Instead, he chose silence as per usual. It was best to remain as distant as he could from Harry despite being temporarily trapped in the same house as the man. The last thing he wanted was to bring the attention of Akatsuki upon the man trying to help him despite how utterly unwilling he himself had been at first. Now he was simply resigned.

"Anyway," Harry exclaimed with a little clap of his hands, "all you have to do is chug a vial of potion and wait a while. There will be two doses twelve hours apart. It may not get rid of the disease entirely but we'll see when we get there." As an afterthought, he added, "Oh, I also have a cure for your failing eyesight but I'm not sure you'll be receptive to the procedure."

Of course the supposed civilian just happened to know his eyes were failing him as well despite the fact that he gave no tells. At this point, Itachi was mentally exhausted with trying to figure the man out. "How?"

"Eh, I performed a medical scan on you while you were knocked out," Harry explained mildly.

That made sense except for the fact that Itachi had remained asleep through it. Was fuinjutsu utilized? If that was the case, perhaps he wouldn't have noticed. That was one shinobi art he wasn't familiar with. The method aside, he was starting to wonder what Harry was. He clearly was no soldier or shinobi but he knew how to ward properties and contain people. Now he could add healing to the list.

Harry almost burst out laughing at the confusion he could see within the other's eyes. The man was definitely hard to read, but he was slowly learning to see what his eyes had to say. He wondered what kind of conclusions the man was drawing about his powers for he was fairly certain magic didn't exist in this world. The closest thing to it was shinobi arts, but even that was different and drew on energy from within them. Wizards and witches, on the other hand, drew on both their own magical reserves as well as what nature had to offer, called ambient or natural magic, depending on what type of magic they were using. Most spells used a witch or wizard's own magic while runes, scrying, and even alchemy borrowed ambient magic alongside their own to fuel and guide. There was a certain magic in nature that was beautiful and untamed, and Harry found natural magic to be in abundance in this world for nature was very much alive; the forests were thick, waters clear, and the skies were unpolluted.

"So do you want to correct your vision? I have to warn you that it's unpleasant and I can't use a numbing agent."

"Unpleasant how?"

"We~ll," Harry drawled, eyes alight with amusement. He had to get his laughs from somewhere after all. "To start with, this procedure must be done in a dark room so preferably at night. The actual procedure is simple and hands-off. I drop a few drops of the potion in your eyes and blindfold you as a precaution so light doesn't interfere with the process. The potion then proceeds to physically correct the problem by melting your eyes and regrowing them. It will feel like teeny tiny needles or scalpels carving into your eye sockets once the optical nerves are reformed or reconnected to your newly grown eyes, depending on the damage. Then you must remain blindfolded for six hours minimum to allow your eyes to rest. Simple!"

Skeptical didn't even cover how Itachi felt. First, there was a possible cure for his disease. Hopefully a prolonged life could see him finish his plans. Second, his eyesight could be fixed—at least temporarily. Regular usage of the mangekyo sharingan would most definitely cause his sight to deteriorate again. He must have been internally debating for longer than he thought because when he looked up, Harry was no longer in the kitchen and neither was the bird.

\- Line Break -

Several months into her term as Hokage, Tsunade awoke abruptly to tapping on her office window. Wiping the drool away with her sleeve, she glared at the offender only to find a white owl, a species she didn't recognize, glaring back at her with bright golden eyes.

"Who on earth uses nocturnal birds to deliver messages in broad daylight?" she grumbled under her breath, turning her chair to shove the window open wide enough for the bird to fly in the room and land soundlessly on her desk. If she didn't know better, she would think the owl was judging her. The bird surveyed the messy desk before daintily stepping onto the only clear area on the wooden surface. It then turned to glare pointedly at her and clacked its beak in irritation, toeing one of the papers.

"Don't you look at me like that," she snarked, feeling a little crazy for talking to a bird. "You have no idea how annoying paperwork is."

As if the owl understood her, the bird glanced at the stacks of paper on and beside the desk with a tilted head before staring right back at her. Hooting softly, it lifted a foot towards her.

Tsunade raised a brow before relieving the bird of its burden, expecting the animal to leave but it remained where it was, looking around the room. Huffing, the Hokage returned her attention to the letter in her hand, hoping it wasn't an emergency of any kind.

On the envelope, it was addressed to "Tsunade, Jiraiya, Shizune, and Naruto in Konoha" in neat calligraphy which was strange. Who wrote people letters like that? Even she only used a brush and ink for important documents. There was no mention of the sender either, no return address. Turning it over, she found a wax seal. Even stranger. After scrutinizing it for traps—really, she was not delaying her paperwork—and finding none, she ripped open the seal and pulled out a thick sheet of paper, a type she'd once again never seen before.

Opening the letter and quickly reading it, Tsunade chuckled.

 _Greetings Tsunade, Jiraiya, Shizune, and Naruto,_

 _I hope this letter finds you well, and that my owl Hedwig didn't give you any trouble. If you couldn't guess, this is Potteru Hari from a few months back. I'm writing to let you know I'm alive and well just as promised! The countries in this area are interesting to say the least. After we parted ways, I spent the next month just wandering aimlessly and seeing the sights. You were right that the roads were full of bandits and rogue shinobi but apparently larger than average snakes work very well as deterrents._

 _Of all the places I could have ended up, I found myself in Wind Country and left three days later. Too much sun and sand! I was finding sand in places I don't want to mention even a week after I left! Not the friendliest of people either._

 _Not sure where I was most of the time after Wind Country, but they were much less sandy and hot. I might try to find my way to Konoha soon just to see what your village looks like. I haven't stopped by any Shinobi villages yet but from what I've seen so far, all of you are a bunch of paranoid buggers. If it won't be a problem for a stranger to visit a Shinobi village, let me know! Just attach a letter to Hedwig. She'll make sure it gets to me. She should have stayed to wait for a reply from you. Can you also give her a drink and some food? She's had a long journey._

 _Oh, before I forget! I got you all some souvenirs. They're not much, and I have no idea what you all like but I thought they were very nice. Just press your finger to the little symbol beneath my signature and say the password "Reveal"._

 _Anyway that's all! See you all soon if I can visit._

 _Signed,_

 _Potteru Hari_

 _P.S. The password setting phrase is "Password set to_". You can't change it so choose carefully! Putting something in and taking it out both use the same word or phrase._

Tsunade glanced down at the strange crest, having never heard of such a thing before. It looked like some kind of winged amalgamation of a lion and an eagle set in a shield. Was Potteru a fuinjutsu master or user? He looked a little young but there were geniuses of all kinds in the world and you didn't have to be a shinobi to be a fuinjutsu user. It made a bit more sense that he wasn't afraid to travel alone even if he could summon snakes. Pressing her finger to the little crest, she said in a clear voice, "Reveal".

There was a popping noise and four small wrapped packages landed on her desk with name tags attached. She picked hers up and tore the wrapping off to find a crystal flower attached to a chain. It looked a bit expensive for a souvenir. Turning it over in her hand, she noticed another one of those little seal symbols on it. Clever.

Taking a breath, she bellowed at the door "Shizune!"

Not a moment later, the woman in question burst through the door. "Yes Tsunade-sama?" Not a breath later, "You still haven't done your paperwork?! The ones on your desk need to be sent to the missions office tomorrow!"

"Nevermind that," the buxom woman groused. Of course the first thing her apprentice noticed was the paperwork and not the weird bird sitting on her desk. "Remember the Manda Tamer from a few months back? He finally wrote to us. I thought he died to be honest."

Hedwig clacked her beak irritably at that assumption and glared at the blonde woman. She beat her wings pointedly, scattering some of the paperwork.

Tsunade glanced briefly at the irritated bird, wondering once again if the animal actually understood her. "Summoner of snakes or not, it's dangerous to wander about alone."

Hedwig puffed up in mild offense, contemplating whether she should bite the blonde for her doubts. Her fledgling was a strong one and wouldn't die from wandering the countryside, especially now that everyone was together again.

"Oh, here's your souvenir," Tsunade added flippantly, tossing Shizune her package.

Surprised, Shizune was nearly hit in the face but managed to clumsily catch it before it hit her. "Souvenir? That's kind of him." Carefully unwrapping the small bundle, she blinked in confusion when a bejeweled gold bangle was revealed. Was it customary in Hari's country to send such expensive-looking trinkets to people they barely knew? She was snapped out of her musings when a wad of thick paper was tossed at her head.

"Tsunade-sama!" she griped, but was as usual ignored. Grumbling, she read the contents. So the bangle wasn't just a piece of jewelry. That would be useful. She would definitely store her emergency kit in there. Putting the accessory on, a thought suddenly occurred to her.

"Tsunade-sama, does Potteru-san even have the paperwork required to get in the village?" The man was so obviously foreign that it was doubtful he had identification that the Hidden Villages would accept.

The hokage stared blankly at Shizune for a long moment. "Oh."


	5. Omake 1

**AN:** As a treat, here are some omake! These are actually deleted scenes because I didn't know how to include them. Granted, I probably shouldn't have cared as I think everyone wouldn't have minded. Hopefully this will tide you over until I finish the real chapter four. It might be a while since it's finals week.

 **Let me know if there's anything you want to see happen. If I like it, I might include it in the story!  
**

* * *

 **Omake #1**

Kisame cursed loudly when his missing partner appeared soundlessly next to him as if he was never gone to begin with.

"Itachi-san, where did you disappear to?"

The shark-like man blinked in surprise when sharp charcoal eyes looked back at him. Itachi's gaze was always piercing and eerie, but they were suddenly more so even without the Sharingan activated like they normally were. There was a clarity that didn't exist before. As the Uchiha prodigy's partner, he knew the shorter man's eyes were slowly but surely failing him. Although Itachi never needed help, Kisame still made sure to draw attention to himself in any physical confrontation.

"Your eyes-"

Itachi gave a slight nod of acknowledgment. "Hn. They have been healed."

"I see. Congratulations are in order then Itachi-san," Kisame remarked cheerfully.

"Thank you. I am under orders to not stress them out for the next seventy two hours."

"Leave all the butchering to me then Itachi-san."

Itachi returned the kind gesture with a nod of thanks. It was good to have such a considerate partner. 

* * *

**Omake #2**

Familiar birdsong filled the morning air forcing Itachi into the waking world.

Kisame abruptly sat up as well upon hearing the beautiful sound. The sound of wings and the sight of what looked to be a ball of fire hovering in front of his partner had him on his feet in less than a second. He was about to shoot off a water jutsu when Itachi shook his head once.

"It's my medic's delivery."

The Kiri nin blinked twice in quick succession, utterly bewildered. "Delivery by fire?"

The flames soon extinguished, revealing a large crested bird with flame-red plumage, its fearsome looking talons holding onto a small wooden box. Soulful crimson eyes took in his surroundings before landing on the shark-like man. The bird actually looked taken aback by his appearance for he cocked his head this way and that before actually shaking it.

"...Itachi-san. Did a bird just appear from a ball of fire?"

"Hn."

It was only from being partnered together for so long that Kisame realized the Uchiha was just as surprised. No one else would have noticed the slight widening of his eyes or taken the twitching of the left index finger for surprise.

Itachi certainly didn't sound surprised though if his usual monotone was anything to go by. "Thank you for bringing it to me."

Fawkes bowed his head in answer and trilled softly in return. The bird turned to stare curiously at the bewildered Kiri nin again before disappearing the same way he appeared: in a ball of flames and a departing bird song.

"Itachi-san. Was that a summoning animal?" And if it was, he'd never heard of such a species.

"I don't believe so."

"You talked to it. It looked like it understood you. It disappeared by bursting into fire!"

 **Back with Harry…**

' _Fledgling! Fledgling! Do humans breed with sharks?'_

Confused and shocked, Harry stopped in his tracks and nearly fell backwards when his familiar appeared before him, hovering in the air and flapping his wings excitedly. "What? No! That's impossible!"

' _But I saw a shark man with Itachi! He had gills and fish eyes! He was blue too!'_

"I-what? Really? Did he need to breathe under water?" Having gills would indicate a need for filtering oxygen from water.

' _No. He breathed air like you do.'_

Hedwig, drawn in by the curious conversation, swooped down from the air and landed on the wizard's shoulder. _'You really saw a shark human?'_

Harry couldn't blame her skepticism. It wouldn't have surprised him back in the Wizarding world, but here? Sure the people dressed strangely on occasion, but to have found a way to cross a human with a shark?

Artemis poked her scaled head out from where she was wrapped around her wizard's neck like a scarf. _'Mayhaps a human laid with one of the merpeople.'_

"Um, there are no merpeople in this world." And he had made sure to check every body of water he'd come across for any trace of magic. He'd found none.

' _He had shark teeth too.'_

Hedwig cooed, surprised. _'Do you think humans breed with sharks in this world?'_

Harry actually began to ponder that before reality checked in and he realized there were some things he didn't want to know—or imagine. "How would that even work? You know what, no. Let's stop this conversation right here." Great, now he needed brain bleach. 

* * *

**Omake #3**

While Jiraiya poked and prodded his gift curiously, Naruto grinned excitedly, putting on his gift. He rarely ever got presents so he treasured every one he got. He would have to remember to thank Hari-san the next time he saw him. He carefully slipped on the pair of black leather fingerless gloves, smile widening at how well they fit. Unknown to him, there was a charm on it to ensure the perfect fit. The seal on the left glove was even a burnt orange, which made it even more perfect.

Jiraiya, on the other hand, was scratching his head in frustration. He'd received a beautifully crafted and weighted fountain pen. According to the note, he would never have to refill it. As far as he knew, there existed no such technique. Just to test the validity of the claim, he spent the better part of a day doing nothing but writing, scribbling, and doodling. It never ran out of ink just like the note claimed.

The next thing the sage did was take the pen apart carefully so as to not damage it. He didn't know where the man got the pen, but he'd never had a pen write so smoothly before. Even after an hour of careful examination of all the pieces, he found no clue. Hell, there wasn't any actual ink to be found upon opening it, but once he put all the pieces back together again and put the nib to paper, ink flowed easily and smoothly.

"What the actual fuck? How is this possible?!"

"Ero-sennin! It's three in the morning. Can you shut up and go to sleep like normal people?!"

"Shut up brat! This," the man waved the pen under the teen's nose, "isn't possible! There's no ink! _How can it write?!_ "

Wiping the spittle from his face with disgust, Naruto squinted at the pen being waved in his face. **"** Um, maybe there's some kind of storage seal?"

"There _is_ no seal! I checked _every single piece_! Seven times!" The sage was pretty much grinding his teeth at this point, his frustration mounting by the minute.

"Whatever ero-sennin. What's it matter anyway? It's just a fancy pen." Rolling over, the teenager pulled the covers over his head. "Maybe it's magic. Go to sleep!"

" _Magic_? Don't be preposterous! I _will_ figure this out!"


	6. Chapter 04

**AN:** Blame Pokemon Go for the lateness. I was going to update a lot sooner but then that game came out, and my life has revolved around catching Pikachu, Caterpie, and their other one hundred and forty-nine friends. Go Team Mystic!

 **Edit:** I updated the prologue and there's now more backstory of the events that unfolded after the war. I was never satisfied with it but I think it's much better now. Please read it if you're interested. :)

 **Harry Potter and the Elemental Nations**

 **Chapter Four**

Harry read and re-read the letter he received from Tsunade and frowned. He apparently needed papers to get into a Hidden Village, not that the Shinobi 'hidden' villages were actually hidden, strangely enough. The only option for him was to be escorted to the village by a Konoha shinobi if he didn't have papers because apparently a Konoha shinobi escort was a paper-free entry but required him to pay a fee for the mission. He had no problem doing that but he really didn't want company if the ninja he'd met so far were any indication of their overall sanity or insanity as it were. Itachi had been the most normal of them all even if he did eventually find out that he had gone rogue. That conversation had been a shock.

They had been sitting in the dining room, Itachi with bandages over his eyes, as they ate a simple rice bowl for dinner. With the ninja being unable to see, this was the best way to get food into the man without Harry hand feeding him. He'd been eyeing the piece of scratched metal and cloth, wondering if the ninja would let him repair the damage.

"Do you want me to mend your headband?"

"Harry-san, do you not know what the scratch mark means?" There was an incredulous note in his question.

"Um, an accident in battle?" Judging by the awkward silence that suddenly fell between them, that was the wrong answer.

Sighing, the Uchiha placed his chopsticks gently down on the bowl. "They are called hitai-ate, forehead protectors, and have our village symbols engraved upon them. A single horizontal scratch through the center of it means I'm a nukenin or missing nin. In other words, I abandoned my village and have effectively gone rogue," said nukenin patiently explained.

"Oh! How interesting. Do all shinobi do that when they go rogue? Why do you keep the headbands if you've abandoned the village?" It seemed counterproductive to have what was equivalent to a blazing neon sign stamped on your forehead telling the entire world, 'I'm here! Send the authorities after me!'

Itachi cocked his head in thought, never having given it much thought. It had been a tradition that nukenin have done since before he could remember. He'd simply followed in their footsteps as did most of the Akatsuki. Running a finger over the worn plate of his hitai-ate, he supposed he kept the tradition as well as the hitai-ate for personal reasons. He missed his beautiful village dearly and the life he had before despite the fact that it was a tough life full of expectations heaped upon his then small shoulders with little happiness. He had his little brother to look after, his mother who doted upon her sons, the comrades he fought side by side with, his ANBU squad that followed him through hell and back, and those were memories he looked back on fondly.

Harry, recognizing the careful movements and silence for what they were, grimaced. He'd pulled what he inwardly sometimes referred to as a Hermione. He loved his best friend dearly but she had the horrible habit of asking questions and prying without much thought. He made a mental note to stop picking up bad habits from his friends.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry or bring up bad memories. I mean, I don't even know your name so it's doubly rude."

"No matter. They were good memories." After a moment of silence, the ninja added, "My name is Uchiha Itachi. You may call me Itachi."

"Itachi-san then."

Shaking the memory of that conversation from his mind, the wizard returned his attention to the letter, frowning when he concluded he'd need to hire ninja as an escort after all though he would request a more experienced team or person. He'd learned a few things about the ninja ranking system from Itachi and the last thing he wanted was for his strange luck to affect their journey and have a pile of injured or dead children. He would make sure to include that in his letter back to Tsunade. In all honesty, he could easily get into the village unnoticed but that would only complicate things for everyone and make it difficult for himself in turn. Thankfully some of his abilities could be passed off as 'chakra' usage if Itachi's lack of reactions were anything to go by.

* * *

 **Tsunade,**

 **I hope this letter finds you well. I apologize for the trouble my visiting has caused. You are indeed correct that I don't have the papers necessary for entering the hidden villages. Where do I acquire such papers if I'm not a citizen of any of the known countries? If you couldn't guess from appearances alone, I'm not from anywhere around here. I don't even know where to begin to look for a way home, not that I'm searching for one at the moment. I quite enjoy traveling and seeing new places.**

 **If it's alright, could you arrange for a B-Rank escort mission? I know it might seem a bit ridiculous, but I have the strangest luck, and I'd rather be prepared for anything and everything. Our meeting is one example of my strange luck. Can you imagine a genin team being caught in the middle of a battle between S-class shinobi and summon animals? It would weigh heavily on my conscience if a team of children were caught in the crossfire if something did happen.**

 **In a week's time, I will be at Tanzaku Gai and staying at the hotel we all stayed in before. I'll try to be at the hotel during the evening hours. The rest of the day, I'll probably be wandering the village and exploring everything. Everything is so different here, it's exciting! Hedwig will be at my hotel room though and she can lead the shinobi you send to me. Oh, can you not send someone too weird? That' probably asking for a bit much considering Naruto and Jiraiya, but please? The ones I ran into so far were all...weird. You and Shizune are probably the most normal of shinobi I've encountered thus far.**

 **Thanks again for arranging this! I look forward to seeing your beautiful village. Enclosed is the money needed for a B-Rank.**

 **Sincerely,**

 **Harry Potter**

* * *

Tapping her finger against her desk, Tsunade considered the letter in her hand. If how they met was anything to go by, Hari did have the troublesome quality of finding himself in dangerous situations through no fault of his own. If that was the case, she couldn't send a genin team to escort him—never mind the B-Rank he requested. He'd even paid in advance, though how the man knew the pricing, she didn't know.

Shizune sat in the chair on the other side of the Hokage's desk, offering input. "Tsunade-sama, we know almost nothing about Hari-san. Maybe we should send a more observational shinobi to gather information. I don't think he means us any harm, but it can't hurt to observe him."

That was true enough. Potteru Hari was an unknown. He seemed harmless enough, but how harmless was a person that could summon an overprotective giant snake? At the very least, Hari was capable of protecting himself. At the most, he could be a valuable ally or dangerous enemy to the Hidden Leaf. She didn't think he was capable of fighting in the conventional sense, but he might have some useful skills nonetheless. Manda wasn't known for respecting anyone unworthy after all. Even people she would have considered powerful and worthy of respect have been snubbed by the arrogant serpent.

"None of my observant shinobi are what Hari-san would consider normal and the ones specializing in information gathering are as far from the word normal as could be."

"He specifically asked for a _normal_ shinobi?" If you grew up surrounded by the elite like she herself had, you'd know 'normal' shinobi never amounted to much or never got very high in the ranks. Even Chuunin developed strange habits.

When Kakashi was called in for a mission, he expected something vastly different from what he actually received. Of all things, he was assigned an escort mission for a civilian that was important enough to be personally handed out by the Hokage.

 **Mission Rank: B**

 **Client: Potteru Hari (civilian)**

 **Objective: Escort to Konoha from Tanzaku Gai. You are to follow a white owl from the Sakura no Mai Inn to the target [Potteru Hari] who will likely be exploring the city. According to client, he has very strange luck and would like to warn his escort of possible danger.**

 ***** Potential for danger and mission rank may rise.**

"I'm to follow an owl," was the deadpan remark after reading through his mission scroll.

"Her name is Hedwig," Tsunade replied straight-faced, watching as Kakashi's visible eyebrow arched toward his hairline. If she hadn't met the owl on several occasions thanks to the letters being exchanged, she would have been just as doubtful of the instructions. She had been rather astounded at the bird's intelligence after she had gotten over her initial skepticism.

"The owl?"

"Yes, the **owl** Hatake!"

"Hokage-sama, how much have you been drinking?"

The silver-haired nin ducked just in time for an empty sake bottle to shatter against the wall behind him.

"Summon owl then."

"No. She's an ordinary white owl."

"...Are you messing with me, Hokage-sama?" Because there were no such things as white owls. The Hokage must be punishing him with pranks for his chronic lateness to everything.

Tsunade chose to ignore his question. "Observe him. Gauge his potential as an ally. He has no identification papers so you're his ticket into the village. Bring him straight to me."

The jounin was getting more and more curious with each passing second, not to mention confused. "Hai Hokage-sama, but I have to ask again: are you messing with me? He's a civilian, right? Unless he's a merchant or a lord, how could Konoha benefit from having him as an ally?"

"Just get the hell out of here before I snap your neck, brat!"

Ducking another thrown bottle, the jounin performed a shunshin and the bottle once again shattered against a wall.

* * *

A hiss escaped thin lips twisted into a snarl. It was gone. The snake summons contract was really gone. He had unraveled it to where his name was written, remembering his recent confrontation with Manda and hoping against hope that his name hadn't been erased. Instead, he found his name had been blotted out with vivid green ink. He had been rejected as a summoner permanently. If his name had been erased, he could have written it down again to prove himself. To add insult to injury, the scroll had folded itself up and vanished in a puff of smoke seconds later. He wouldn't get another chance to even attempt to reconcile with the serpent race. He had mindlessly tossed books and scrolls aside in a vain attempt to find it again. Unbridled fury ignited within him, vision going red with rage as he hissed again when reality had finally set in.

"Orochimaru-sama, what is the matter?"

"I have lost the Serpent's contract!" A tray of vials met the floor when the irate sannin swept everything off his work space in fury.

Kabuto's eyes widened behind his thin frames. Scanning the shelves for the missing scroll, he grimaced when no scroll was to be seen. Manda-sama had wiped his master's name from the scroll and then retrieved it. That was unsettling. He never imagined the snake would go so far even if they had inadvertently offended someone important. The snake had never considered anyone worthy of respect before and hardly ever cared when one of his summoners were killed. Manda-sama had threatened them with death many times before, but this time, he was certain if they ever met again on the battlefield, their lives were forfeit.

"I will _**kill**_ that man!" Books and scrolls scattered across the room. The serpentine man was breathing heavily, leaning against the side of a table, staring at a spot on the wall with murder in his eyes. Of all the things he had in his possession, the summoning contract was especially precious. It had marked a time of importance and power in his life.

With his master in a blind rage, Kabuto refrained from commenting on how bad of an idea that was. They already lost the contract. If Manda-sama himself was summoned against them in battle, it would not end well for them. "Orochimaru-sama! You must calm down. You've only just started adjusting to your new body."

"Be _quiet_ , Kabuto! Find this 'king' of serpents and _eliminate_ him!"

"Understood. With your permission, I will dispatch a few units to scout."

" _Do it!"_

Kabuto withheld a wince as yet another tray of his hard work smashed against the tiles. The two trays alone had cost him seven months of research. He did flinch when another set of vials was tossed against a wall. He left the room before he could see anymore of his hard work destroyed. Gritting his teeth, the bespectacled man just barely managed to refrain from stomping down the winding halls in a fit. Now _he_ wanted to see the cause of all this dead if only to feel better about a year's worth of research going down the drain.

* * *

 **AN:** I have a question for all of you. What should Harry's animagus form be? Give me reasons to support your choices as well. I also don't care if his animagus is a magical or normal animal. What would you guys like his Patronus to be? Would love good reasons for that too. =) I've been wracking my brain trying to think of good ones for his animagus form and patronus but have come up blank.


	7. Chapter 05

**Harry and the Elemental Nations**

 **Chapter Five**

* * *

 **Hari,**

 **I'm afraid a 'normal' shinobi is a useless one therefore your request has been denied. Instead, I am sending someone well-known for his strength. He has a few quirks, but he's not intolerable. You will find that the stronger the shinobi are, the stranger they get.**

 **I have also neglected to let Hatake Kakashi know anything beyond you having Hedwig. The brat is often late to everything and needs to be taught a lesson. Shock and surprise him as much as you like.**

 **Tsunade**

The morning he was due to set out on his mission, Hatake Kakashi knew almost immediately that it was going to be a shit storm. The prickling feeling at the back of his neck was a familiar one. When a strap on his sandal snapped before he could get out of the front door, he knew for certain it was going to be an unpleasant mission. The black cat that crossed his path soon after only added to the growing dread pooling at the pit of his stomach. Was this karma out to get him for all the horrible excuses he gave in the past decade or so?

After half a dozen mishaps ranging from branches snapping from beneath his feet, to sudden rain showers turning the dirt road into mud and making camping out a most unpleasant experience, and bird droppings acting as an alarm clock, the silver-haired jounin was sure the universe was out to get him. He had nearly fallen into a pit trap for wild game as well, still upset by the unpleasant wake-up call. When a wet behind the ears shinobi rained kunai and senbon on him in the middle of the road hoping to collect a bounty for his head, he'd about had enough and wanted to simply go home. As a result, it took him twice as long to get to Tanzaku Gai than estimated.

Hedwig waited patiently on her perch at the reception desk for the ninja she was to escort to her Harry. When noon rolled around and there was still no one in sight, she settled in for a long wait. Several hours later, she nearly fell off her perch in shock when a droopy-eyed, mud-soaked man with the Konoha hitai-ate stepped through the entrance. And was that blood spattered all over his clothes? What in Morgana's name happened to the human? _This_ was the human meant to help protect her wizard?! Clearly the large-breasted woman was lying when she said the man was strong.

When Kakashi saw for himself the snow white owl perched on a bird stand by the receptionist's desk, he stopped in tracks. The owl really was as white as snow. The bird seemed to be judging him too with the way she was looking him up and down. Sighing heavily, he trudged towards the bird after a quick exchange with the receptionist.

"I feel like a moron for talking to a bird, but are you Hedwig?"

The owl was so distracted by the man's appearance that the question nearly escaped her. She hesitantly nodded once when she regained her senses, eyeing the man haughtily with bright golden eyes when the man's dark eyes noticeably widened at her response.

Just to confirm, he asked another question, "you really understand me...?"

Giving the owl equivalent of a huff, she refrained from screeching at him in offense but nodded again, this time cooing softly as well.

Kakashi tilted his head in confusion, much like the dogs he was known for summoning. "Are you a summon?"

Hedwig shook her head in the negative. If only she could talk, she would tell the man to stop wasting her time so they could get moving. Instead, she flapped her wings once and glided onto the man's shoulder. A firmer grip than necessary equated to "Move!"

"Right, right." The Copycat was about to head out the door when a thought occurred to him. It wasn't as if they were in a rush. There wasn't exactly a time limit. In fact, escorting civilians typically took weeks depending on how far they were traveling. "Can I take a shower first? I'm sure your master wouldn't mind an extra fifteen minutes' wait."

The receptionist, an older woman with greying hair, interrupted with a patent smile. "Sir, the guest has a room on the second floor. The owl has the key if you wish to use the amenities."

Kakashi was about done with the oddities surrounding this mission. Since when were ordinary owls capable of such complex behaviors like holding onto keys for people or waiting for someone's arrival?

Huffing once more, Hedwig grudgingly produced the key and tossed it at the man's head. She could see the sense in cleaning up since the shinobi stunk to high heaven and was covered in who knows what, but she hated making her fledgling wait longer than necessary. A sharp bark in the man's ear at least made him hurry along.

After cleaning up under the overly watchful eye of a white owl, Kakashi gathered his supplies but left everything else as it was. Any attempts at touching any of the owl's master's belongings were met with irritating screeches. There was a golden bird perch settled by the largest window, what looked like a cloak settled against the back of a chair, and a leather bag. There was nothing else.

"Bird, I can just seal all of it into my scroll and we won't have to come back."

An angry screech permeated the air followed by a wing against his head.

Unbeknownst to the Copycat, Hedwig was both protecting her fledgling's property as well as this shinobi's hide. Harry tended to be bit a overzealous with warding what he considered his, a byproduct of his abysmal childhood. As annoying and incompetent as this man seemed to be, she didn't want the man to get cursed.

"Fine, fine. Lead the way."

Immediately, Hedwig launched herself out of the open window, forcing Kakashi to jump out as well. Not five minutes later, Hedwig landed on the roof of a well-known casino. A blur landed beside her. Nodding at the silver-haired man as a gesture to wait which he surprisingly understood, she shuffled, fluffed up a bit and settled down to wait for her human to appear. He would have felt her rapid approach. True to her prediction, Harry walked out the door not two minutes later. With a cheerful hoot, Hedwig descended and landed lightly on her Harry's head. The ninja followed her down.

"Hedwig, thank you for this. I'll give you extra bacon for breakfast tomorrow."

Nodding approvingly, she settled down into the nest her fledgling called hair.

Harry wasn't too sure what to think of the man that appeared before him. Startling silver hair spiked messily above a forehead protector that covered one eye. A mask covered the rest of the man's face. All he could tell from what skin he could see was that the man was pale and had a relatively strong jaw line.

As for Kakashi, this Potter Harry character sure was different from what he had imagined. He had imagined a balding man in his late fourties or even an elderly man for it was typically the elder and shinobi that developed odd quirks. Instead, he was met with a young man with bright, forest green eyes and messy black hair dark as night. He looked entirely too defenseless to be wandering the Elemental Nations alone. His clothes were of a high quality cut, even if from a distance it looked plain. The man reminded Kakashi of all the times he's had to hunt down wayward lordlings who wanted to escape their gilded cages in a misguided attempt at freedom only to find the world was much safer from within their cages and that freedom wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Even stranger than his appearance was the fact that he seemed to know when they arrived from within the building.

He displayed none of his thoughts. Instead, he smiled as he typically did and cheerfully greeted the commissioner of this mission. "I'm Hatake Kakashi. Tsunade-sama sent me to escort you and your owl back to Konoha safe and sound!"

"Nice to meet you. I'm Potter Harry or Potteru Hari if you can't pronounce it. Sorry for troubling you with what must seem like a relatively boring mission."

Here, the owl made a series of clicks and hoots, followed by a soft screeching noise.

Potter blinked in astonishment, and then his brow slowly creasing with worry. "I, oh, are you hurt? Let's head back to my room and we can look you over for any injuries. I don't think a quick shower would have helped much. Maybe we should stay an extra night so you can recover a bit. I didn't think my luck would catch you before you even met me," he rambled on in concern.

With that, the man hurried back to the inn, Kakashi following along silently and dumbfounded. The guy actually understands Owl. What the fucking hell? Did humans naturally learn the language of animals? Some clans were bonded with their companion animals to such a degree that they understood each other like the Inuzuka and Aburame clans. Even Kakashi himself understood dogs to a certain degree. However, there have been no records of a clan bonded with owls.

"Potter-san, do you speak Owl?"

"No, of course not. I just understand Hedwig since we've been together since I was a child. She's practically a part of me."

That made even less sense. Growing up with a dog, for example, didn't allow the owner to understand if the dog suddenly said, "Hey, this guy showed up a bleeding mess and caked in mud! So I took him to our room and let him use the shower."

"But you understand her word for word?"

"Yes, of course. We can talk more later. Let's look you over first."

"I'm not injured."

Harry came to an abrupt halt. "Huh? But Hedwig said you were soaked in blood and mud and who knows what else!"

Kakashi chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head slowly, "None of it was mine!"

"In that case, I'll just pack up and we can leave. I can meet you at the gate."

"No. As soon as we met up, my mission started. I don't let you out of my sight unless you need privacy."

Harry nodded in understanding. Together, the odd trio made their way back to the inn. There, Kakashi was witness to yet another oddity. The man folded up his cloak and placed it in his leather bag. That wasn't the strange part. The next part was. The golden perch followed in the cloak's footsteps and entered the bag as well.

"Potter-san, that shouldn't be possible."

Harry smiled, bemused. "But it is where I come from."

Kakashi stared blankly back at his client. "Where do you come from?"

"A country called England on the continent known as Europe. I'm almost positive you've never heard of it."

"Yup. Never heard of em."

The odd little group was soon on the road. Hedwig scouted from above while the two humans walked along below. Harry busily took in all the sights. The setting sun made it all the more beautiful. As the sun fell lower beneath the horizon, Kakashi made a suggestion to make camp which Harry happily vetoed.

"It's dangerous to continue after dark."

"Hatake-san, I actually prefer traveling at night. Hedwig is very effective at keeping me out of danger at this time of day." Unsaid was that a lot of snakes were nocturnal and he liked gathering information via the snakevine. It also happened to be the best time for Artemis and Hedwig to hunt.

Kakashi was more than skeptical and was wondering if his new client was perhaps crazy. Not even shinobi liked traveling at night. The chances of being caught unaware were significantly higher even if the darkness heightened their senses because it hampered them just as much.

"I advise against traveling, Potter-san."

Clearly, the ninja didn't believe him.

Harry heaved a sigh and sat down on the dirt floor. "Fine." He turned to Hedwig who had landed silently on a branch above them.

"Take Artemis with you and hunt. It's about time you two got some free time to yourselves. Hatake-san is acting as protection so you don't need to hover." With that said, he reached under his collar and pulled out a little snake about two feet in length and half an inch in width and placed her on the ground. He stroked Artemis soothingly and watched as she grew nearly three times in size until she was a little more than six feet in length, returning to her actual size under a wordless charm.

Hissing in appreciation, Artemis bowed her head at her human before following the owl out of the clearing.

Kakashi who had been watching in growing horror and fascination in equal parts finally croaked, "You had a snake on you the entire time?!" How did he not smell it on him? Come to think of it, the snake didn't smell of anything. Neither did the owl. Was that another technique of Potter's? Concealing scents as a way of defending oneself was a smart thing to do.

"Um, yeah. She's protective of me so she doesn't leave me unless she has to eat. Since you're here, she can hunt without worrying about me all the time. Really, I should be looking after her since she's still a hatchling."

"It's a snake," Kakashi couldn't help deadpanning. "All it cares about is eating, staying warm, and sleeping." At least that was true of all the snakes he ever came across. Even Anko's vicious little snakes only cared about their next meal. He was pretty sure if Anko dropped dead, they would eat her.

Harry snorted. "Not my snake."

"Right." Still skeptical.

Ten minutes later, a fire was blazing after a low powered katon jutsu and food was cooking thanks to Harry's culinary skills. Harry's bag apparently was able to carry fresh ingredients as well for they had a delicious beef stew boiling in a pot that was also retrieved from what seemed like a bottomless bag.

Kakashi had watched dinner being prepared, surprised at the young man's apparent ease in ingredient preparation. The entire time, he thought Potter was a noble-one of those rebellious young lords who wanted to explore the world in their naivety-,and nobles didn't tend to do housework of any kind.

Hedwig and Artemis returned not long after the food started cooking. The owl's beak was stained red from her dinner while Artemis had a nice lump in the middle of her long body.

"That was fast. You girls can explore and stretch your wings and, uh, scales."

Hedwig hooted in askance, staring pointedly at the ninja with sharp golden eyes. She didn't think the man very capable judging by first impressions. She couldn't trust this man to protect her fledgling.

Artemis simply didn't feel comfortable leaving her human with an unknown. Not while Fawkes was away delivering medicine to the dark-haired ninja. The phoenix tended to watch over the man for a few hours after ingesting his tears in case of side effects. Hopefully he will be back by morning. So instead of exploring, she curled up protectively around Harry, slitted golden eyes observed the temporary addition to their group curiously, carefully not using her killing gaze. What a strange looking human.

Meanwhile Kakashi couldn't believe his ability to defend his client was under question by an owl and a snake. An _owl_ and a _snake_ thought him incompetent.

After they were all fed and watered, the Konoha nin watched the bedtime ritual of his client in fascination. Hedwig took up post on a branch above Potter's chosen tree. The large snake carefully curled around the young man in a way so that the thickest part of her covered his vitals while also becoming a makeshift pillow with her large spiked head unhindered. The cloak from earlier was wrapped around both of them and they fell asleep curled into a man-snake ball.

Kakashi could admit to never seeing animals behave that way before, especially not a snake. If they were summon animals, that was one thing. These animals possessed no such fighting abilities from what he could tell. The snake was unusual though. Her head was shaped like a viper but she had horns or spikes that formed into scales the further down the body they went. It was a species of snake he had never seen before. Harry had mentioned she was still young too. What kind of young snake was already six feet in length? With his curiosity running rampant, sleep came late but morning came all too quickly by birdsong.

The Copycat nin shot into a sitting position only to blink owlishly as his gaze met a stunning fiery bird perched next to a grumpy looking Hedwig, trilling a song to the sunrise. The crested bird was a brilliant mix of crimson, orange, and gold that shone like liquid fire under the rising sun.

A muffled groan had his gaze redirect to the pile of snake, man, and cloak. "Fa~wkes, pleeeease let me sleep for another hour... or three..."

The now named bird, Fawkes, silenced his song and cocked his head curiously before gliding down to the forest floor. He nudged his crested head against the curled form and crooned.

"M'tired. Sleep..."

The phoenix eyed the new ninja curiously before acceding to his bonded's request and settled down to nest next to the pile of human and snake. He would stay awake and watch their new companion.

It turns out choosing to sleep for a while longer was a mistake. Hedwig abruptly swooped down upon her human and nipped the wizard on the nose to wake him before crooning something urgently at him. Harry awoke almost immediately and stood, cautiously scanning his surroundings and Artemis circled around her human eyeing their surroundings as well, flicking her tongue to taste the air. Fawkes had immediately taken to hovering by Harry's shoulder. Kakashi who had sensed the danger at approximately the same time as the owl placed himself between the quickly approaching enemies and his client.

To his surprise, a team of Sound ninja—two males and one female in their mid-teens—greeted them with a hail of kunai and an earth jutsu, all of which Kakashi easily deflected and neutralized. Upon seeing who had deflected them so easily, they reeled back in shock, unprepared for the caliber of protection their target had.

"Hatake Kakashi?!"

Harry noticed their uniform and groaned—loudly. "Oh great, the Orochi weirdo's minions."

"How dare you insult Orochimaru-sama!" the lone female screeched.

"Potter-san, I would like to ask you how you know Orochimaru but I will save it for when you are safe. Please stay back and let me handle them."

Harry stared at the back of Kakashi in alarm. Did Tsunade really neglect to tell him anything at all? He thought the woman was joking in her letter. The man must have been chronically late to everything. Throwing Harry Potter at a single man was likely the most horrifying prank to pull.

"Uh, sure..." It seemed like he could take care of himself and their enemies were just teenagers. So the wizard nodded at his familiars and they all took a seat on the forest floor underneath the tree he was sleeping against just minutes prior.

Kakashi nearly facepalmed when he looked back for a split second to see if his client followed his instructions only to find him casually sitting on the forest floor like they were about to have a picnic rather than being in mortal danger.

The Sound team was clearly outmatched but wasn't about to return empty-handed. They had orders and to return without at least trying would mean a death sentence or severe punishment. The two men immediately began running through a series of hand seals but were interrupted by Kakashi's shunshin behind them and had to duck immediately to avoid a swift beheading. The female leaped towards Harry while her teammates occupied the Copy nin's attention but was forced to dodge a chidori, and was grazed in the arm. She still managed to launch a projectile which started spewing poisonous gas when Kakashi threw a kunai at it to halt its progress. Fawkes took flight and took up position between the cloud of gas heading towards his wizard and breathed a column of purifying flames at it, purging it from existence. While her human was immune to poison, the rest of them weren't. Artemis was already moving beneath the flames and struck lightning fast. Fangs pierced through the the girl's leg and venom was generously pumped into her bloodstream. A scream tore from the Sound kunoichi's lips as lava burned through her veins. The basilisk unlatched and returned to a defensive position, rearing back and hissing in warning.

Kakashi seeing that the kunoichi was all but incapacitated and writhing in pain on the floor, quickly returned his attention to the remaining pair who made a desperate attempt to reach his client with a series of shockwave attacks much like the ones he had seen in the Chuunin exams his genin had participated in not too long ago. With a fist full of crackling lightning, he made to intercept but was too late. As fast as he was, he wasn't faster than sound. To his immense shock, the shock waves met a barrier and dispelled harmlessly. Now that he knew Harry was safe behind a barrier of his own making, Kakashi instead directed his Chidori towards his opponents with a series of shunshin. Two punctured chest cavities later, the enemies were neutralized. The lone kunoichi was at Death's doors, barely aware of her surroundings as the quick acting poison made its way through her bloodstream.

Covered in guts, bone chips, and blood, Hatake Kakashi made for quite the terrifying sight, but to his surprise, Harry didn't look the least bit phased. He dashed over to his client and looked him over with a critical eye. "Did the poison reach you?"

"Nope. I'm fine and dandy. Did you get hurt? I was distracted by poison gas and wasn't able to watch the entire fight. But from what I saw, they were completely outmatched."

Assuring Potter he was fine, Kakashi instead asked, "Are you fine to continue the journey today?"

Harry smiled in bemusement. "Of course. It's not like I did any fighting. We should get a bath going for you. You're covered in bits of human. But first, let's interrogate the girl? She's nearly dead and I'd like to know why that guy's minions are trying to kill me."

Kakashi blinked slowly, yet again surprised at the nonchalant reaction of his client. Most people would be shaking in fear from having such a dangerous enemy or going through shock at the amount of violence that took place in such a short time, but Harry pragmatically suggested interrogation instead.

"Of course." The silver-haired nin hauled the girl up and shunshined a few meters away to interrogate her.

Unfortunately, the girl was far too gone and all he got was a shuddering whisper, "Kabuto's...orders... Kill—foreigner..."

Upon receiving the report of what was said, Harry looked utterly bewildered. "Who the fuck is Kabuto? I thought they were that weird Orochi person's minions?"

A brief explanation of who Kabuto was didn't expel the wizard's confusion. He understood it was the other ninja fighting on Orochimaru's side when he first came to this world, but he wasn't aware of doing anything to provoke an attack.

"So... I'm being hunted by these Sound ninjas under this Kabuto's orders which translates to being hunted by Orochimaru," Harry deadpanned. "But I have no idea why. I didn't even do anything other than run away from a fight between giant talking animals!"

Kakashi would usually call bullshit. People like Orochimaru didn't usually bother with ordinary people without reason, but from what he could tell, Potter wasn't lying. "You have no idea at all?"

"No. I literally ran away, but the big animals were spitting mad... Maybe it has to do with the animals? You ninjas can summon right?"

"Yeah, I have a summoning pact with the dogs. When you say giant animals, I assume you mean Tsunade-sama's, Jiraiya-sama's, and Orochimaru's summons."

"Yeah, they were on top of a toad, slug, and a snake." Something Kakashi said struck Harry then. "You make pacts? As in contracts with the summoning animals?"

"That's how shinobi summon animals." A brief explanation of how summoning contracts worked cleared some confusion but caused the wizard to hang his head in mild depression.

"Oh, well shit. I think I know why the guy's after my head. The Serpent clan probably terminated the contract. We should probably confirm that, just to be sure."

Kakashi groaned. This wasn't what he expected. Now he knew why Potter asked for a higher mission rank. To think the guy might have somehow caused a sannin to lose his contract. "And how do you propose we do that? Summon Manda?"

Harry choked on a laugh, surprised at how accurate the snarky question was. "Yep! That sounds about right. We'd need to find a larger clearing though. Manda is quite large."

" _What?!_ "

* * *

 **AN:** Told you I update irregularly. Happy holidays everyone. :)

Posted: December 11, 2017


	8. How it Could Have Begun

**[READ THIS! IMPORTANT!] AN:** As a treat and an extra gift for your patience, I am putting this up as an Extra. **This is what HP and the Elemental Nations could have been** ; how it **could have started**. From the very start there were two options for how I would have liked for Harry to be injected into the Narutoverse. One was via an animal summoning gone wrong which I obviously chose because I wanted the funny route after much deliberation. I mean, a snarky mother hen Manda is pretty damn funny. He's the size of a small village stretched out!

The other was when a gateway was opened via the summoning of a Shinigami. Both Minato and Hiruzen did it so I could have chosen one of those times to insert Harry. This would have been the start of a tragedy and much destruction. Less funny. I mean, I could make it funny because it still somehow turned funny as you will read. Anyway, enjoy this one shot!

 **Harry Potter and the Elemental Nations – _How it Could Have Started_**

* * *

 _What could have happened... In another time... Perhaps a different universe...  
_  
Sarutobi Hiruzen knew this day would come. He loathed having to strip his student of his powers but he was partially responsible for what Orochimaru became. So as the ghostly hands only he could see held tightly onto his soul, a bitterly brittle smile adorned his lips as his former student howled in rage.

His battle partner for most of his life, Enma, could only watch on sadly as his partner sealed away his student's arms in exchange for his very soul. It was hardly fair but at the Sandaime's advanced age, it was a tough task to kill his student with the brutal efficiency he had in his prime, even with the monkey boss's help.

Hiruzen could see the cloaked figure of the shinigami flicker into existence, an ominous deity of power he didn't have a hope of understanding. Still, the god was his only option even if he did end up dooming his very soul for eternity.

The Shinigami who had been silently performing his part of the contract suddenly jerked as if surprised, empty sockets eyeing open air. The Konoha shinobi and Orochimaru were suddenly witness to an eerie green light that lit the roof for a brief moment. Without a sound, a seam ripped open in reality and a young man stepped through it, a surge of dark mist following in his wake. Just as suddenly as the portal appeared, it fizzled out of existence. Dressed in a black cloak from head to toe, he cut a terrifying image despite his ethereal features.

To the absolute confusion of everyone, the shinigami's skeletal features seemed to be gaping in shock at the man's sudden appearance.

"...Master...?" the entity questioned, very obviously surprised. It was a horrible sound not meant for human ears. It simultaneously screamed and whispered, raspy and like nails against a chalkboard. Despite being in the open, it echoed statically, reminiscent of the aftermath of a lightning strike at close range. His voice made Hiruzen's skin crawl. It was as if ice had been injected in his veins.

Despite the pain teacher and student were both in, the pair eyed the newcomer warily. Someone the Shinigami referred to as a superior couldn't be taken lightly.

Harry blinked, took in his surroundings and frowned in confusion. "What the...? Where am I?" From what he could deduce, he was in the middle of an epic battle taking place within a barrier on a rooftop of all places. Talk about precarious. An old man was quite literally at Death's door, and three souls had been recently used to fuel bodies to be used in battle though one was stuck in a sort of limbo, having been contracted to the shinigami and was simply floating within a contained casket, unable to do what the necromancer wanted. The remaining two's temporary bodies had been taken out and were ready to return to the afterlife with the summoned reaper.

The Shinigami cocked his head curiously. "You do not know, Master?"

Choosing to ignore the battle he inadvertently interrupted, he instead answered in the negative. "I was hoping to end up somewhere less, uh, dramatic when I came looking for you."

"I can take you elsewhere after my business is done here if you wish."

Shrugging, Harry sat down on the roof, eyeing the disbelieving people in masks outside of the barrier warily. "What's going on anyway?"

Returing his empty gaze to the struggling pair, the shinigami solemnly explained the contract and conditions under which he was summoned.

"Well, your kind enjoy the taste of corruption. Won't the old man's soul give you indigestion then? His soul, while not the brightest or purest, is still rather bright and clear."

To the shock and horror of everyone present, the shinigami burst into a facsimile of cackling laughter; a hollow void of high pitched noise permeated the air. If horror had a sound, this was it. It sucked the light out of the atmosphere.

After a frightening few moments, the entity quieted. "Those were the stipulations in the contract I was summoned under, unfortunately."

As if reality could be warped to the man's whims, Hiruzen watched the young man tap his cheek, pondering the options before blurting out, "Well, I can void it, can't I?"

The Hokage's eyes widened at those words. ' _No, this could not be happening. Orochimaru had to be stopped.'_

Screeching snickers echoed around them before the shinigami got himself under control again. "Certainly, master."

Harry nodded decisively. "Voided it is. Take that Voldemort clone's soul as compensation." The Sandaime mentally breathed a sigh of relief. His student wouldn't be running loose causing havoc and grief any longer. That thought hurt him to even think it. With that, the grip upon Hiruzen's soul withered away and the elderly ninja took in a shuddering breath as he slumped towards the ground, all the strength suddenly leaving his limbs. Enma was quick to catch his partner.

With nothing holding onto his limbs any longer, Orochimaru regained function and wasted no time in launching at his former teacher with renewed vigor.

A beam of red light slammed into the snake summoner, tossing him a few meters away and into the barrier, dropping him like a stone.

"Orochimaru-sama!" came a cacophony of cries.

Only then, did Harry notice the four strangely dressed kids holding up the barrier. Among the dozens of powerful people beyond and within the barrier, they registered as much as house plants would on his radar. "Huh. How did I not see them before?"

Having heard the wizard's thoughts via the bond that he sometimes forgot to not broadcast, the entity sought to reassure him. "Master, they barely register any power. It is little wonder you mistook them for house plants."

"...I didn't think they were house plants. I meant that compared to everyone else, they were like houseplants in comparison."

The entity cocked his head again. "...Is that not the same thing?"

Palm met face in exasperation. "Oh, never mind."

Enma couldn't take it anymore and nearly bust a gut laughing his furry bottom off. With how high tensions were not five minutes ago, the running commentary did a wonderful job of pulverizing it. The highly offended expressions of the four brats only added to it. Even Hiruzen cracked a smile despite how utterly drained he was.

"Anyway," Harry waved his hand at Orochimaru's crumpled form, "he's all yours, darling."

"You are too kind, Master," the being practically simpered in adoration.

"Who is that one?" Harry asked, gesturing to the only closed coffin. "It's exceptionally bright."

"Ah... Someone who summoned me once upon a time to save this very village and all the lives within it for his soul. If it wasn't such a powerful soul, it wouldn't have worked. My stomach remained unsettled for many years. I do not look forward to ingesting it again."

The wizard snickered, eyes crinkling in his laughter. These reapers were too much sometimes. "I'm not too surprised," he breathed. "It is an extraordinarily pure soul despite all the lives it took. Can I have it?"

Upon hearing the request, the reaper eyed the young man speculatively. "It will fall under your jurisdiction," it warned.

"Oh... Will He mind?"

"My Creator adores you. You need not fear. It is good for you to have a companion since He is often busy."

"Thank you. You can take..." Here, Harry looked to the elderly man, who was slowly recovering, for the Voldemort lookalike's name.

"His name is Orochimaru," the Hokage stated grimly.

Harry nodded in thanks. "He's yours in exchange for the bright one. You can also take those four's," he pointed at the four sound nins still maintaining the barrier, "in exchange for this one I'll keep."

As he said this, the four sound nins were bound. For being so young, their souls were tainted with darkness which this particular reaper would enjoy. He rose to his feet and approached the single untouched coffin. A bright orb emerged from within and landed within the wizard's cupped hands, seen only by Harry and the reaper. Freeing one hand, he conjured a glass container attached to a chain and placed the soul within. Satisfied, he put on the newly conjured necklace.

With given permission, the reaper phased into existence beside Orochimaru's form, and skeletal hands plunged into him. A scream tore past his lips as pain erupted in his chest. The process of extraction was slow as the reaper took his sweet time to maximize the pain and punishment. Outside of the barrier, the four Sound nin suddenly shrieked and convulsed in agony as their cursed seals self-destructed. The snake sannin's various soul shards embedded within them broke free in an attempt to reach their main body to help which resulted in four comatose Sound nin and a dropped barrier.

"Huh. That guy is even worse than Voldemort, knowingly making human containers. Blegh."

Sarutobi could only watch in horror and shame as snake-like wraiths of his student erupted from the young ninjas and dove at the shinigami only to be swallowed whole. To see his former student falling so low was heartbreaking. It was a small mercy that he didn't have to execute him. If only he was stronger in his youth and not so soft, recent events would have never come to pass.

Once the extraction was complete, the reaper swallowed the blackened soul, leaving the rapidly cooling corpse for the shinobi to collect.

"Done? Good. Death wants to see you. He's stuck behind a desk and has some papers for you. You know my handwriting hasn't improved over the centuries so... uh, though I'd like to help, it would only cause more work," Harry rambled, "And we couldn't find you at home, so I offered to come find you. Oh, and I sense more of those disgusting human soul vessels. You have my permission to extract the rest of them to stretch your legs because the pile of paperwork was impressive. Anyway, we don't need another Riddle running around. Leave the vessels alive though."

The reaper groaned but nodded and with a bow towards Harry, collected the remaining pair of souls, opened a portal and disappeared within it.

Harry shook his head in amusement before turning to the elderly man. "I don't know which ritual you used, but you might want to select a different one. A soul as bright as yours only causes that faction of reapers stomachaches. If your soul wasn't so powerful, like the one I now hold, he wouldn't have even bothered to answer."

Suggestion given, the wizard turned and with another gesture, a portal was opened and he stepped through, disappearing from sight and leaving behind several squads of stupefied shinobi, a pale hokage, and one chuckling monkey summon.

* * *

 **AN:** Hope you've all enjoyed this second early Christmas gift. If you can't tell, Option A was a HarryxItachixKakashi and Option B was meant to be a HarryxMinato. This point in time was the perfect time to save one of my favorite characters (Sarutobi) and for Harry to snatch Minato's soul from the Shinigami to play with, I mean, save. I also destroyed Orochimaru because he was one annoying freak of nature. Because I didn't use this version for HP&tEN, this is simply Harry derailing plans and saving two souls from eternal limbo because Death didn't want to deal with paperwork alone, and works as a stand-alone one-shot.

Someone mentioned Harry and Anko meeting. Unbeknownst to you, I have already written their first meeting months ago. I'm just waiting for the perfect opportunity to insert it. I said this already, but I write this story in random parts and then stitch various things together to form a chapter. When something doesn't quite fit as I want it, they usually end up as omake. It's also one of the reasons why sometimes updates are weeks apart, other times, months, and like this time, nearly two years.


	9. Chapter 06

**AN:** If I have the timeline for the Narutoverse mixed up, my apologies. I spent so much time looking up information, it's a jumbled mess in my brain. Treat this Narutoverse like an alternate timeline if things don't match canon. Pretty soon, it will diverge from canon anyway because honestly, following it to the T is mega boring.

 **Harry Potter and the Elemental Nations**

Chapter Six

"You cannot possibly be serious. Manda was Orochimaru's boss summon. The serpent clan is notorious for being vicious. As an ordinary person who can't even run all that quickly, what are you going to do if it gets ugly? I can't protect you from something that powerful." Kakashi wasn't sure what this kid was on, but bringing that particular snake to them screamed suicide mission. He understood that being hunted by a man like Orochimaru was dangerous, but that was no reason to deliberately put yourself in danger instead of gathering information covertly.

Harry grimaced as he thought of a way to explain how he could summon Manda without a contract which seemed mandatory in this world. Alternatively, he could go over to Manda's dimension but he was certain Kakashi would not be received well. "Even if that is true, I'm confident I won't be attacked. I may not know anything about how to fight, how ninjas work, or their skills, but I do know what I am capable of. I have enough skill and power to call Manda."

Kakashi scowled beneath his mask. He couldn't believe the reckless decision Potter was making. Manda wasn't someone he wanted to mess with, especially when his own summons weren't even large enough to work as toothpicks for the snake. "You're thinking of summoning a giant snake that is known to eat its summoners. I'm supposed to be protecting you so I advise you to rethink this plan. From our conversation, it doesn't look like you have a contract either and barely know how a summoning pact even works. You say you have enough power but boss summons require a lot of chakra."

"Look, I promise you won't be in any danger. I don't know any other way to check, do you? If it makes you feel better, you can watch from a distance and leave if it gets dangerous, and let me get eaten. Either way, I'll be doing it with or without your approval."

The Copy nin grit his teeth in frustration, so very tempted to just knock the man out and carry him the rest of the way to Konoha. If only it wouldn't negatively impact the village's reputation. Or piss Hokage-sama off to disregard her orders to observe.

"Fawkes, can you get us to the closest open area large enough for summoning Manda without doing too much damage?"

The phoenix trilled happily in response, looking forward to seeing the serpent again.

Snapping out of his frustration, Kakashi raised a brow. "He can carry people?"

"Yes. He's capable of carrying many times his weight." Not that they would be flying. Instead, they were going to travel via phoenix fire. Best not let the ninja know in case he freaked out. "You've probably noticed he's not an ordinary bird what with him spitting fire." Harry bent down towards Artemis and shrunk her again before tucking her beneath his collar and Hedwig landed on Harry without prompting, ready for travel.

The ninja was skeptical and eyed the bird in disbelief. "How?"

"Uh, I have no idea how to explain. Just hold onto my arm and we can go. Don't let go and don't freak out."

The second Kakashi warily took hold of Harry's arm, Fawkes spread his wings and belted a few notes before lighting aflame and enveloping the entire party in it, bathing them in warmth. In a flash, it was over and they were deposited in a sea of grass.

Kakashi let go immediately and took in his surroundings warily. He had expected to be flown, not set on fire and transported in an instance to a location several hours away. It didn't feel like a jutsu or space-time ninjutsu. The bird did it all, not Potter. He turned to Potter expectantly, awaiting an answer.

Harry chuckled sheepishly. "Sorry. I figured it was faster to just do it than explain it. You can probably see why it was better that way. I doubt you'd believe me. I'll explain more later. For now, do you want to go further away?"

Sighing in defeat, the shinobi shook his head. "I'll stay here. It'll be faster extracting you if it goes wrong." He fingered his weapons pouch and watched as his client pulled out a stick, pointed it in front of him and said something in a different language. There was a flash of light and suddenly Manda was towering over them, blocking out the morning sun and casting them in a shadow. ' _Well, shit. The guy can actually summon Manda. I didn't feel a hint of chakra either.'_ There was a surge of something static, cold, and comforting all at once, and then nothing. Sweat dotted his brow and he braced himself to gather Potter and make a run for it.

Manda peered down at the pair imperiously before registering who exactly was in front of him. He slowly lowered his head to the ground to better see the pair and so they could converse without shouting, causing Kakashi to quickly grab Harry and back away. Manda ignored his actions, mentally scoffing at the ridiculous human.

" **Well, it's about time, little king. It's been months since you've been dropped here and I've heard nothing from you.** " Manda flicked his tongue, checking the human's condition, ignoring the Konoha shinobi's presence completely, deeming him insignificant and unimportant. " **At least you're not hurt this time though I smell blood. Were you in battle? Why was one of our brethren not summoned?** "

Releasing Harry in shock, Kakashi couldn't compute how this creature was the same Manda he'd heard of and seen in battle the rare times he'd seen the sannin back in the day when he was still a Konoha shinobi. Back then, the great serpent could not care less about the health and welfare of his summoner so long as he had enough to eat and kill during battle. If he didn't deem the battle worthy, he would leave Orochimaru stranded. And _little king?_ Was he right and Potter was nobility, a king at that? Maybe from that England country he mentioned.

Fawkes landed on the great snake's head and twittered a few notes. Hedwig took flight, landed besides the phoenix and hooted at the snake in greeting as well.

" **Hmph. Who cares if the forest will suffer from my presence? It'll grow back.** "

That sounded more familiar to the Hatake, and then his mind was blown when Potter started spitting and hissing. The guy spoke _Snake!_ No fucking wonder he was so confident he wouldn't be eaten. Even Manda would probably give a human his time if they spoke his language.

§§Manda, you're overkill and so are your children and your children's children—or at least that's what I've been told by Jiraiya-san when I said I could summon you if I was ever in trouble. Plus Hatake-san protected me very well on his own.§§ Harry rolled his eyes, forcibly getting himself back on track instead of indulging the snake's mother hen tendencies. §§Oh, and speak in parseltongue. We're supposed to prank my escort so the less he knows, the funnier. Anyway, I wanted to ask what happened between you and that Orochi guy.§§

Manda tilted his head, dislodging the birds who took off to stretch their wings, in equal parts bemusement and confusion. What use was that information, he wondered, but provided it anyway. §§ **What happened? That insignificant little shit dared to attack you without provocation. Needless to say he has been stripped of his status as summoner for our clan and the scroll was reclaimed. Terminating the contract was the least he deserved. Next time, he's** ** _dinner._** §§

Palm met face as the wizard groaned, utterly dismayed at the sudden turn his life took onto the road of, perhaps not mortal peril but, annoying murderous ninjas. §§Ugh... I thought so.§§

Manda chuckled in satisfaction. It served the worm well to know he would never summon one of them again. If he tried, he was as good as dead.

§§You do know... I'm now number one on his hit list? And the blood you smelled was from a team he sent after me.§§ the wizard deadpanned, somewhat amused by the snake's vindictiveness.

All sense of satisfaction fled him in an instant, replaced by horror, which was overtaken by raging anger. §§ ** _What?!_** §§The great snake hissed angrily, forked tongue flicking again as he reared back in shock. §§ **He** ** _dares?!_** §§ Snarling, the great snake began winding back and forth in agitation, hissing and spitting incoherently.

Kakashi would have rushed in to the yank Harry out of there if his client wasn't rolling his eyes.

"I'm _fine,"_ Harry sighed, reverting back to Japanese, "Hatake-san killed most of them and Artemis took out the last." When it didn't look like Manda heard him, he added, "calm down." Of course, it did the total opposite of calming the snake.

" **Calm down...? Calm down?** ** _Calm down?!"_** Manda stopped pacing, as much as a snake could pace without legs, and narrowed jade-green eyes down at the wizard who so lacked self-preservation. He clearly needed to spend more time in the cave with them. " **You're a puny human being hunted by a mass murdering, mad scientist, criminal shinobi who has shinobi of his own! Are you mental, you** ** _stupid_** ** _human_!** " he boomed.

To think the day came where Hatake Kakashi would agree with Manda...

"I'll be _fine!_ " The young lord insisted. As if the timing couldn't be any worse, his stomach growled angrily. Not the best way to show he could take care of himself...

Manda snorted, nearly bowling Harry over with his breath. **_Fine_** **? You're not even** ** _eating_** **properly!"**

"It's not my fault those idiots attacked before I could make breakfast!"

Reptilian eyes narrowed in equal parts disgust and concern. **"Stay here. I'll go hunt."**

"No no no no! No hunting!" Harry yelped in a panic. The first time Manda went hunting for him, the snake brought back a dozen cattle. He didn't seem to understand that humans could hardly consume so much red meat at once nor that Harry was at a perfectly healthy weight. When he said there was no way he could eat so much, the snake brought back a single cow the next time when he clearly said a rabbit would do. "I have food in my bag!"

The serpent eyed the leather satchel dubiously. **"You must have shit for food because you're still too skinny and breakable. I will hunt something suitable."**

Harry waved his arms frantically to no avail. "No! I can't eat an entire cow!"

" **Put the rest in your bag and try not to get yourself killed while I'm gone,"** Manda snorted sardonically, turned on his tail, and disappeared over a distant hill in an instant, presumably to hunt.

Harry hung his head in defeat and despair. Great. Now he would be eating beef for months.

Kakashi didn't know whether to laugh himself silly or faint in shock. What universe had he been transported to? Was he still in Fire Country? How did a serious conversation get derailed so badly? Manda was going _hunting_ because Potter's stomach growled. That almost made the snake seem endearing. Shaking his head, he re-centered himself.

"...So I believe you now when you say you're in no danger." Shaking his head again, still bewildered, Kakashi added, "No one has ever mentioned he could be so..."

Harry cocked a brow. "So overbearing in his protectiveness?" he finished for him.

"Yeah, that. It's unheard of when it comes to Manda. For as long as I can remember, he's always been the least agreeable of the sannin's boss summons. If Orochimaru didn't offer what he deemed appropriate compensation of hundreds of sacrifices, then he didn't cooperate."

"Ah, yeah... From what I can tell, Manda doesn't respect people like Orochimaru. I think the only reason why he fought for him at all was because he was one of the few who was capable of summoning him and provided some amusement with the battles he was summoned for. Most importantly, he got plenty of food that way without having to hunt for himself."

A sweatdrop rolled down the side of Kakashi's head. ' _Of course it was the food_.'

Not ten minutes later, Manda returned and spat two very dead bovine at the wizard's feet.

"Why are there two...?"

" **What else is your Konoha cannon fodder going to eat? If he's going to be a good meat shield for you, he must be fattened."** The snake boss's jade eyes leered menacingly at the Hatake in a clear warning to be a proper disposable meat shield.

Said meat shield twitched in irritation and broke into cold sweat. And to think he thought the snake was endearing just minutes prior.

"Hatake-san is perfectly capable of protecting me. He did a fine job earlier."

Manda's eyes slid over to the ninja, gauging his usefulness and found him lacking if the dismissive hiss was anything to go by. Not even deigning to reply, he instead curled around the pair and stood guard while his human made breakfast.

Not having the energy nor will to argue, Harry began preparing the fresh kills, with Kakashi quick to follow.

After breakfast was had and Hedwig got her promise of bacon, they were ready to continue their journey to Konoha. Problem was Manda didn't think Harry had a large enough entourage.

"Aren't you going to go home?" Harry asked once everything was packed and the fire put out.

" **And leave you with...that** " The tip of a serpentine tail pointed at the Copycat nin, " **as your only protection against** ** _Orochimaru_** **? You must be joking. I am coming with you.** "

"That's ridiculous. You're huge, Manda. There's no way we can inconspicuously travel with you around."

" **What's ridiculous is your bad luck. Clearly you don't know how to take care of yourself; not eating, letting yourself get attacked by idiots, and having shit protection at that. Hedwig told me he wasn't even capable of stopping a poison attack!"**

Harry glared at the smug looking owl perched atop Manda's head. "There were three of them and just one of him—," but Manda wasn't listening and talked right over him.

" **You don't even have proper guards! Your station should demand no less! What kind of emperor doesn't have a proper guard to stand between them and their enemies?! Oh, let me tell you—JUST YOU!"**

" _Manda!_ That's enough!"

Manda's jaws snapped shut with a click.

Harry sighed in exasperation, but smiled fondly at the great snake. "I'll take better care of myself. Hedwig will make sure I eat three meals a day, get enough sleep, and Artemis will be allowed to kill on sight, okay? I _promise_ I'll summon you right away if I'm in any danger. So stop being a worrywart and go home!"

Manda glared mutinously at the copy nin as if him getting snapped at was all his fault. Kakashi automatically took a step back in response and waved his palms in the universal gesture of peace. " **Understood...** ," he muttered angrily, " **But you had better contact me once a week or I'm sending my sons."**

The wizard smiled gratefully at the snake and stepped up to him, hugging his large head as best as he could. "Thank you Manda. Now go home, eat a large meal, get some sleep, and stop worrying about me. I'll send Artemis to you once a week with updates. You know she won't lie."

With one last glare at the Konoha nin, Manda bowed his head and poofed out of existence.

Kakashi sat heavily on the ground. "I think that took ten years off my life."

 **AN:** Thank you for the positive response to the extra I posted. I may write more and post it as a second story, but it will be a series of interconnected one-shots if I do. I'll let you all know if I do decide to do that. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that chapter.

Posted: December 16th, 2017.


	10. Chapter 07

**Harry Potter and the Elemental Nations**

 **Chapter Seven**

* * *

Three days and no news meant the team he had dispatched was most likely dead. Kabuto drummed his fingers against his desk and pondered on what to do. Perhaps it would be best if he personally took care of the problem. Leaving his lab, he stalked down the hall to his master's personal rooms and knocked twice before entering.

"Orochimaru-sama, how are you adjusting to your new body?"

The sannin flexed his hands and hissed in satisfaction. "Much better." Serpentine eyes glanced at his servant's face. "Any news from the team you sent?"

The bespectacled man frowned minutely. "Since I've received no news, I'm afraid they're dead. Perhaps I should take care of him myself."

Orochimaru's smile was malevolent as his lips stretched across his face, his abnormally long tongue caressing a cheek. "Do not fail me, Kabuto."

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama." With a quick bow of his head, the man stalked out of the room.

* * *

The journey to Konoha was peaceful for a few days, and Kakashi managed to get some answers to a few questions he had. Fawkes turned out to be a phoenix, a creature he thought to be mythical and spoken about only in legends. Harry also shared with him the ways phoenixes were able to travel with company. Things were finally calming down. It was when Kakashi began to relax that disaster struck again.

An exploding tag detonated, thrusting Hedwig into the air in a spiral. Out of all his familiars, Hedwig was the most vulnerable. Harry was quick to cloak her in a shield before the tag activated and mentally ordered her to observe from the sky and help by providing an aerial view of the battle.

Seeing his familiar was now safely out of range, Harry concentrated on chaining spells and launching them at Kabuto who had launched several kunai in his direction upon showing up and blocking their path. A blasting hex clipped his shoulder, but the wizard had to apparate when a chakra encased palm came too close to striking him when the sound nin used the momentum of the blast to push off the ground and advance on him. A tripping jinx followed by an incendio forced the sound nin back and into a fast approaching Kakashi.

With his target was now out of range, Kabuto threw another tag-wrapped kunai at the wizard and focused on parrying the copy nin's attacks.

The tag went off not ten feet in front of the wizard. The shield he always kept active as a rune on a bracelet around his wrist kept the concussive energy and debris at bay. Hissing furiously, Artemis weaved her way through damaged ground and launched herself at the sound nin only to miss by a hair as the man dodged. Undeterred, she twisted midair and snapped at his arm, lodging her fangs firmly in it and releasing a large dose of venom into his bloodstream. She was quickly thrown off and into a nearby tree by a chakra enhanced blow to her body. Thankfully her tough scales protected her from harm but she was still momentarily dazed from the attack.

Suddenly finding himself in terrible pain, Kabuto glanced down at his arm as he ducked beneath a chidori and swiped a chakra laced palm at the copy nin. Instinctively knowing the venom was a fast acting one, he severed his arm from the bicep with a chakra scalpel before it could travel up his arm and cauterized it with a flash of fire chakra.

§§ _Bastard!_ §§ the basilisk hissed. If only she could use her killing gaze without the chance of friendly fire. She didn't think Harry would be happy with her if she accidentally killed the Konoha ninja.

Fawkes swooped down and circled the missing nin, flames erupting in his wake, closing in on the man. When a water jutsu proved ineffective at putting it out, Kabuto escaped with a chakra powered jump. The phoenix followed him, exhaling magical fire in quick spurts. Several made contact and exploded, tossing the man several meters away.

To Kabuto's surprise, he was unable to heal the damage caused by the fire bird.

At the rate Kabuto was healing himself, Kakashi found any damage he did was reversed too quickly to last and was thankful for Fawkes' fire attacks which did permanent damage. The sound nin was also smart enough to never look directly into his sharingan and he was fast running out of options.

§§ _Serpensortia Manda!_ §§

As soon as he appeared, Manda had assessed the situation and lightning fast, dove for Kabuto with jaws agape. The traitor barely escaped being dinner but Manda turned and slammed the better part of his tail into the sound nin and propelled him into a fallen tree not far from a recovered Artemis. The basilisk was quick to constrict the man within her coils and latch on with extended fangs to prevent escape.

Harry woozily stood up and apparated over to his guard and whispered urgently, "Close your eyes!"

Although he wanted to question the instructions, Kakashi did as told.

ß _Now, Artemis!_ ß

Permission given, the eyelids keeping her killing gaze at bay lifted, and she stared straight into the missing nin's eyes, killing him instantly. Deed done, she lowered her eyelids again.

There was a thud as a body hit the ground. Artemis quickly unwrapped herself and made a beeline towards her wizard who shrunk her again and stowed her away beneath his collar. Hissing in contentment, the young snake snuggled closer and fell asleep.

"Okay, you can open your eyes again."

Mismatched eyes snapped open and glanced at the now very dead Kabuto. "What-how?"

"Artemis can kill with a look."

What Kakashi thought was a cuddly snake turned out to be an instant killer. He wasn't sure if the lack of surprise on his part was a good thing or not.

Before the conversation could continue, Manda had snapped the corpse up in his jaws. Harry grimaced at the sound of crunching bones, knowing the snake was only chewing to exact some postmortem revenge against the man. Like all snakes, Manda swallowed his meal whole.

"Did he taste any good?" Harry asked curiously.

The large snake cocked his head in thought, flicked his tongue twice before muttering in disgust, " **No. I don't know what he did to himself, but he tasted pretty foul.** "

Kakashi chuckled now that the tension has bled out of everyone. "Knowing that he followed Orochimaru, I'm not surprised."

Venomous green eyes narrowed in disgust and loathing down at the Konoha nin, " **Who said you could speak to me, you _lowly monkey slave_? You would be a _snack_ if you weren't tasked with guarding the little king.** "

The Hatake cringed but quickly nodded.

Harry sputtered, scandalized at the snake's behavior, and scolded the serpent, "Manda! Don't say that!"

" **He's a dog of Konoha who jumps if told to by that dead monkey's student.** "

"I have no idea what any of that means."

" **Don't worry your pretty little head about it, my lord.** "

The group plus one slightly shrunken Manda soon returned to traveling after a bit of rest and healing. This time, Harry was unable to convince the snake to leave and Manda was adamant about not being the size of a scarf. Instead, the snake was shrunk down to about the height of a horse while his length was who knows how many feet. The animal grumbled and hissed at the less than intimidating size (for him), but Harry refused to allow for him to be any bigger if he wanted to accompany him. Needless to say, any travelers they came across gave the group a wide berth. After terrifying half a dozen travelers, the wizard detoured off the road and elected to travel through the forest instead with Kakashi in the lead. The poor ninja was decidedly uncomfortable with having a homicidal snake glaring at him from behind.

The good thing about having a overprotective violent snake traveling with them was that any men Orochimaru sent was dead before Kakashi could lift a finger and cleanup was a breeze because they all ended up in the snake's stomach. The bad thing was Kakashi couldn't properly rest without one eye open. When everyone settled down to sleep, Manda would curl protectively around Potter while the young man slept, eyeing the copy nin with malicious intent, hissing under his breath about the smell of dog-which the Konoha nin could hear loud and clear. The snake barely slept the entire week it took them to reach Konoha, content to intimidate Kakashi as much as he was able in lieu of rest.

Another unexpected problem was the two humans were now very tired of eating beef and venison. Even shrunk down, Manda managed to find a cow or deer and bring it back every other day. The wizard would resignedly butcher the animal and store what he couldn't eat in his bag so as to not offend the snake. Kakashi meekly ate his share at Harry's insistence with Manda's chilling stare drilling into the side of his head every meal. Kakashi didn't even feel the want to crack open his Icha Icha for fear of being used as a toothpick if he offended Harry by reading porn openly. In the face of Manda, he even forgot to question Harry about anything.

The men _really_ couldn't wait until they reached Konoha. Harry wanted vegetables and maybe some pork and chicken. Kakashi wanted to sleep for a week.

* * *

 **AN:** Happy Yule! I tried to get this out in time for Christmas and actually made it. It's a bit short but I thought there was enough to warrant publishing. Hopefully Harry and Co. will reach Konoha soon. And that Itachi is healed.


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